Vengeance Calls
by demon19027
Summary: Vengeance comes to Sunnydale as Buffy crosses paths with the Ghost Rider.
1. 1-1

AN: Been sitting on this one for a while. Finally decided to post it. Now onto the disclaimer:I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

 _Buffy walked across the sands of the L.A. beach, enjoying the feel of the sun on her face as she listened to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, when she suddenly felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her waist. A soft smile spreads across her face, as she looked back to see Angel leaning his head over her shoulder._

" _How'd you find me?" she asked, brushing her hand against his cheek._

" _If I was blind, I would see you"_

 _Buffy lowered her and to embrace his arms tightly to her._

" _Stay with me"_

" _Forever" Angel whispered in her ear. "That's the whole point. I'll never leave. Not even if you kill me."_

Buffy woke with a start, finding herself in her rundown apartment. Ever since she ran away to L.A., after killing Angel, her dreams have been filled with constant reminders of what she'd done in her role as the Slayer. Never allowing herself to forget the look of betrayal on his face, when he returned to himself just in time for her to profess her love as she ran him through.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Buffy walked the streets of Los Angeles, dressed for her waitress job, trying to get her dream of Angel, out of her mind. Looking for a distraction Buffy stopped as she came across a local kid spray painting a mural, depicting a flaming skull, surrounded by X's.

"They say he hit again last night" said the kid.

"Who?" Buffy asked.

"The Ghost Rider. You must not be from around here."

"Guess I've just had my fill of legends" Buffy said wistfully, as she continued on her way.

Helen's Kitchen was by no means an upscale restaurant. Between the diner's sleazy interior, and even sleazier customers, constantly harassing her, it took everything Buffy had to get through the days.

Moving to her next table, where much to Buffy's relief, a young couple was seated. While the break from lecherous old men was much appreciated, serving the young couple was proving to have its own minor problems as the young lovers were too into each other to notice her.

Clearing her throat Buffy asked, "You guys ready?"

"Yeah. I think we're good" the guy forced himself to look away from his girl to read Buffy's nametag "Um…Anne."

Anne took out her pen and pad. "What'll you have?"

Dumping a handful of change onto the table the guy asked, "What can we get with this?"

His girlfriend smiled at him and asked, "Can we get cake?"

"Lily, we got to eat healthy. We can't have cake" he turned back to Anne. "Can we get pie?"

"We've got a peach pie" she replied, writing down the order. "I can't guarantee there's a peach in it."

"We shouldn't have blown all our money, Rickie" Lily told her boyfriend.

"Come on, it was worth it" Rickie smiled, holding out his forearm on the table. Lily smiled back and did the same. "Hey, check this out" he told Anne.

Anne looked at their arms as they held them together and saw they each had a tattoo of half of a heart with a ribbon across it, with the other's name on their respective halves.

"It's nice" Anne smiled weakly. "It's nice and, uh, permanent."

"Yeah, forever" said Rickie, putting his arm around Lily. "I mean, that's the whole point."

Anne looked down sadly at the reminder of what Buffy once had with Angel.

"Hey, do I know you?" Lily asked, looking intently at Anne.

"I don't think so" she replied, keeping her head down. "I'll get your pie."

* * *

That night Anne left Helen's Kitchen and was on her way back to her apartment when the girl from that afternoon, Lily suddenly came running up behind her.

"Anne?" she called but she got no reply. "Anne?" Lily called a little louder, but still no response. "Buffy!"

At the sound of her actual name, froze Buffy in her tracks.

"Don't be mad" said Lily. "I won't turn you in or nothing. I guess you don't recognize me."

Buffy took a moment to think about it, "Lily?"

"I mean from before" the other girl clarified, seeing that Buffy didn't recognize her she explained. "I was calling myself Chanterelle then. I used to…Well, I was in this cult that worshipped vampires. So, lame, I know."

"Yeah…I, uh, I remember" Buffy was growing uncomfortable, not wanting to be confronted with her past.

"But...you kinda saved us. I never thanked you or anything."

"Did you tell anyone who I was?" Buffy needed to know if it was time for her to run again.

"Oh, no! Not-not even Rickie" Lily assured her. "I mean, I was so surprised to see you here, waiting tables…But I wouldn't tell. I know how it is when you gotta get lost."

The two former Sunnydale girls started walking together.

"Do you, uh, do you live nearby?" Buffy asked uncomfortably, trying to make small talk.

"Well, there's a couple of places Uh, they're abandoned, and a lot of people stay there" Lily confessed. "So, how'd you come up with Anne?"

"It's my middle name."

"Lily's from a song. Rickie picked it. I'm always changing anyway. Chanterelle was part of my exotic phase."

"It's nice. It's a…it's a mushroom."

"It is? That's really embarrassing."

Buffy blushed realizing she stuck her foot in it, "Um, well, it's an exotic mushroom, if that's any comfort."

"Well, before that, I was following this loser preacher and calling myself 'Sister Sunshine.'"

"What do they call you at home?"

Lily looked away, telling Buffy that was one question that would go unanswered.

"I like Lily" she told her, succeeding in improving the other girl's mood.

"It's cool for now" said Lily. "Hey, do you have any money?"

Buffy gave her a surprised look.

"I didn't mean it like that" Lily said hurriedly, realizing how it sounded. "Well, I just mean . . . I know this guy, he's gonna have this kinda rave thing in his basement. We could go. I mean, I could show you if you had—Cause I'm broke."

"I – I don't think so" said Buffy. "I just kind of…I want to be alone."

"I didn't mean to bug you."

"No! I-I didn't, I didn't mean that, it's just…Well, a – a lot of people like that, it's, it's too much."

Buffy looked away, not wanting to see the disappointment on Lily's face.

"I-I do have the money though, so why don't you and Rickie go, and then maybe I could meet you some other time" she offered, digging through her purse.

But Lily waved her off, not wanting a free handout when she was legitimately trying to make a friend. Suddenly an elderly homeless man rudely pushed his way between the girls, who stared after him.

"That's not very polite" Lily commented.

At the sound of her voice, the homeless man turned around and stared expressionlessly at them.

"Are you ok?" Buffy asked.

"I'm no one" the man said blankly.

Buffy's eyes widened in concern as the homeless man stepped into the middle of the road, standing there with his arms stretched out waiting to be run down. As if sensing his wish a pickup truck suddenly came racing down the street. With the truck making no attempts to stop, Buffy dropped her bag and rushed out into the street and pushed the homeless man out of the way, only get hit by the truck herself.

Despite the pain, Buffy managed to get on her hands and knees, by the time Lily rushed to her side.

"Are you ok?" Lily asked worriedly. "Maybe you shouldn't move."

"I'm fine" Buffy assured her. "What about the driver?"

Sure, her abilities let her brush off things like this relatively unscathed but one would think the driver would want to see if they'd killed her. Lily directed Buffy's attention to where the pickup truck sat idly in the middle of the road.

Suddenly one of the passengers came outside, a man marked with gang tattoos all over his arms, carrying an RPG of all things.

 _Ok forget about the hit and run_ Buffy would be lying if she said she wasn't worried about what the gangster planned on doing with that kind of hardware. The part of herself that she'd tried to burry was starting to urge her to do something when suddenly the gangster aimed the weapon up the street, as the sound of an engine roared through the night. Then it appeared a black 1969 Dodge Charger speeding towards them.

"Shoot it!" they heard the driver say from inside the truck.

Buffy wanted to cry out a warning to whoever was driving the Charger but it was too late, the RPG fired and hit the car dead on. The blast threw the car into the air, spinning end over end but despite that, the Charger received no damage instead fire erupted from within covering the car's engine and wheels in flames, causing the Charger no damage as it rammed into the side of the pickup.

While the Charger remained undamaged the pickup wasn't so lucky, leaking oil onto the road, igniting upon contact with the black car's flames creating a wall of fire cutting Buffy and Lily off from the gangsters and whatever they were running from.

With the wall of fire blocking her sight Buffy could just make out what appeared to be a flaming skeleton dressed in a black leather jacket, stepping out of the Charger. She couldn't see what happened next but from the horrified and tortured screams of who she assumed were the gangsters, it wasn't heard to guess.

Then just as suddenly as he appeared he was gone, leaving Buffy and Lily stunned by what they'd seen.

* * *

Days later Buffy was in Helen's Kitchen, filling the sugar dispensers, and doing her best to forget about Slayers and Ghost Riders, when Lily came rushing into the dinner.

"Buff – um, Anne? Can I talk to you?"

"This isn't a good time" said Buffy, as she continued to work. "Can it wait?"

"Rickie's gone" Lily blurted out. "I haven't seen him for more than a day. I—he's never left for that long. I think something's…happened. Maybe something's happened. What if the Ghost Rider got him?"

 _I so don't need this_ "Did you call the police?" Buffy asked.

"Rickie skipped out on his parole" Lily sighed. "They'd just cause more trouble."

"Well, have you asked around?"

"Can you help me?"

"Uh, I – I can't"

Buffy tried to walk away but Lily stubbornly followed after her.

"But…but that's who you are and stuff, right? I mean, you help people, and, you know…"

"I can't get into this. I'm sorry, Lily."

"You, you know how to do stuff" Lily said desperately. "I don't know what to do."

* * *

Buffy was practically kicking herself as she followed Lily into a local blood bank.

"We gave blood lots of times 'cause you get a few bucks" Lily explained. "And they

have cookies!"

"Guessing you're a fan of the sugar rush?"

"It's nice" Lily smiled.

A nurse then approached them asking if they were planning to donate blood.

"Uh, we're actually looking for a friend" said Buffy.

"Rickie Thomas?" Lily supplied. "We come in sometime."

"Rickie, sure" said the nurse, now remembering the couple. "Uh, he's not here."

"Do you know if he's been here for the last day or so?" Buffy asked.

The nurse checked the computer but could find no record of Rickie making a recent donation. With their first lead a bust, Buffy and Lily decided to split up to look for Rickie, making plans to meet back at Buffy's apartment. As they left the girls didn't notice the nervous expression on the nurse's face.

* * *

While Buffy was searching for Rickie, across town someone else was conducting a hunt of their own. The gangster with the RPG from a few nights ago was beaten bloody, and left chained up against the wall of an old garage. Standing before him was a dark haired young man of Hispanic descent – the Ghost Rider's car sitting idly behind him.

"Please, no more" the gangster begged, flinching as he watched the boy…no demon before him play with his keys.

"I asked you a question" he said coldly, his eyes suddenly burning red with hellfire.

"Ah! Ok, ok, we get the names from some nurse at the blood bank!" the gangster screamed. "Now, please let me go!"

Satisfied the Rider got into his car and for a moment the gangster thought, just maybe he was being let go. That hope was quickly thrown away once he realized he was chained to the only exit.

"No! No! Please I don't deserve to die!" he cried.

"Everyone always says that" unmoved by his captive's tears, the Rider slammed his foot down on the ignition, crushing the man against the hood of his car, as he smashed through the garage door, and drove off into the night.

* * *

After spending hours searching, Buffy thought it was a good time to return to her apartment and meet with Lily, hoping that she'd found something. She wasn't far from her apartment when suddenly the old homeless man she recognized from the other day came stumbling across her path. The man barely took two steps before he collapsed at her feet. Concerned, Buffy checked for a pulse but to her sorrow found none. Buffy sighed thinking no one deserved to die cold and alone on the sidewalk, as she put his arm down, she noticed a tattoo on the man's arm. A very familiar tattoo of half a heart with a banner proudly displaying the name Lily.

"Rickie?" she gasped, confused as to what could've happened.


	2. 1-2

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

"Did you find Rickie?" Lily asked, the moment Buffy walked into her apartment. "I thought of—well, he likes to go to this movie house, you can get in around the back…"

"Lily" Buffy interrupted. "Lily…I think he's dead" she winched as she watched the other girl shatter to pieces in front of her.

"But…he takes care of me" said Lily, sounding so very lost. "We're gonna get a place together. His cousin can get him a job at the car wash."

Buffy gave Lily a sympathetic look as she knew exactly what the other girl was feeling.

"Lily, there's…there's something else. The, the person I found…was old. He-he looked about eighty."

"Well, that's not Rickie!" Lily raged, thinking Buffy was playing games with her.

"I'm sure it was" Buffy said delicately. "I don't know how, but…it was like something drained the life out of him."

"Do you mean like a vampire?"

"No. a vampire couldn't accelerate the aging process. Maybe it was something in his blood" a light bulb went off in Buffy's mind. "When was the last time you guys gave blood?"

"I don't understand" said Lily, ignoring Buffy's question. "Maybe it's not Rickie."

"Lily, this is something you're just going to have to deal with" said Buffy.

"But he didn't do anything wrong! Why would this happen to him?"

"That's not the point. These things happen all the time. You can't just-" Buffy took a breath, as she realized she needed to say what came next, just as much as Lily needed to hear it. "You can't just close your eyes and hope that they're gonna go away."

"It's you, isn't it?" said Lily. "You know about monsters and stuff. You could have brought this with you."

"I didn't bring anything with me" said a now very annoyed Buffy. "And I didn't ask for you to come to me with your problems. I just wanted to be left alone. If you can't deal, then **don't** lay it off on me!"

Proving to be too much for her, Lily ran out of Buffy's apartment, hands over her ears in an effort to deny what she's heard. Buffy could only sigh, regretting that she raised her voice to the emotional girl.

* * *

Despite her initial reluctance to get involved, Buffy found that she just couldn't let the mystery go unsolved. Deciding to follow up on her theory, Buffy returned to the blood bank to investigate. Expecting to have to break in, she was surprised to find the front door was still open.

Cautiously entering the bank, Buffy went to the cabinet and started looking for Rickie's file, when suddenly she heard what sounded like crying coming from the back office. Quietly she crept up to the door and peaked inside, where the nurse from earlier – now covered in bruises and bleeding – was sobbing uncontrollably, chained to her office chair with the dark-haired young man around Buffy's age, standing over her, uncaringly.

"I just…I give him the names of the healthy ones" the nurse sobbed.

"Give them to who?!"

"H-His name's Ken. He runs the Family Home-teen shelter" the nurse completely broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. "Please…please I didn't know…I didn't know what was happening."

"You knew something" he growled, fire glowing in his eyes. "You knew no one would notice if a few homeless runaways disappeared. Seemed like a good way to make a quick buck, didn't it?"

Buffy couldn't believe what she was hearing. She'd suspected something at the blood bank would lead her to whatever happened to Rickie, but she had no idea there were others. She was considering revealing herself, when suddenly the nurse's body burst into flames when the mystery man, placed his hand on the woman's forehead.

Unconcerned with the woman's cries, the he prepared take his leave only to be met with Buffy's angry glare.

"You didn't have to do that" she said, shaking with righteous furry.

"She had it coming" he said dispassionately.

Unconcerned by her presence, he attempted to walk past her, only for Buffy to push him back across the office, sending him crashing into the back wall.

"You don't get to decide who lives and who dies" Buffy challenged.

"I'm not the one who decides."

Buffy's stared dumbfoundedly as the skin and hair stared to bubble and melt off the mystery man's head, revealing bone as fire surrounded his skull. Remembering the story, she'd heard the other day, Buffy knew she was standing before the Ghost Rider.

The Ghost Rider charged at Buffy, who didn't back down to meet his challenge. Landing a solid kick to his chest, Buffy was shocked when the Ghost Rider wasn't even phased. Surprised by how solid the flaming skeleton was, Buffy was caught off guard when the Rider grabbed her and tossed her clean through the back wall and out into the alley behind the blood bank.

Dazed, Buffy tried to climb to her feet only for the Ghost Rider to grab her by the scruff of her neck, and held up against a wall. As she struggled to escape the Rider's grip, Buffy looked into his fiery eyes, and couldn't help but feel he was looking into her very soul. And though she would deny it, Buffy couldn't help but feel truly afraid.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the Rider released Buffy, letting her drop to the ground, as his car drove itself into the alley, stopping right in front of them. Returning to human form, the Ghost Rider walked towards his car, pausing just before he got in, he turned and gave Buffy a hard look.

"Stay out of my way"

And with that the Ghost Rider got in his car and drove off, leaving Buffy to wonder just why did he let her live.

* * *

When a flaming skeleton monster kicks your ass and decides to let you live, the sensible thing to do is to listen and stay out of his way. Of course, no one ever accused Buffy of being sensible. Tracking down the address of the Family Home wasn't hard, the teen shelter had fliers all over town.

Upon arrival, Buffy found the dead bodies littering the front lawn, and the sound of fighting coming from inside the shelter, a clear sign that the Ghost Rider was there. Feeling as if she'd come too far to back out now, Buffy raced inside and found the Rider tearing his way through the shelter staff.

None of them managed to so much as slow the Rider's stride as he made his way towards the back room, paying no mind to Buffy who looked horrified by the carnage.

Turning her focus away from the Ghost Rider, Buffy went to check on the nearest victim, hoping he was alive, regardless of what they'd done, they were human and Buffy couldn't imagine any human deserving such a brutal fate.

Sadly, there didn't seem to be a single survivor of the Ghost Rider's wrath, anger built inside Buffy's chest at the casual manner in which the Rider snuffed out their lives. As she prepared to go after the Rider, Buffy paused as she noticed the face of one of his victims melted off, revealing a demonic visage angry red flesh underneath.

 _They aren't human_ Buffy realized, and for a moment she wondered if the Rider had known that. But quickly banished the thought as she remembered what he did to the nurse and the gangsters from the other night. One thing was clear, human or monster, to the Rider it didn't matter.

Suddenly a horrified scream sounded from the backroom, Buffy sprang to her feet as she immediately recognized the voice as Lily's. Afraid of what the Ghost Rider might do to her, Buffy ran into the backroom, finding the Ghost Rider standing in front of a pool of thick black water, on the other side was Lily trapped in the grasp of who, Buffy recognized from the shelter fliers as Ken.

"Just let me go, Rider" said Ken, fear clear in his voice despite his best efforts to hide it. "Just let me go, and she's yours."

With everyone's focus on the Rider, no one noticed as Buffy prepared to jump in and save Lily, when suddenly in a flash of hellfire a chain appeared in the Rider's hand. Examining the strange choice in weaponry, Buffy grew concerned once she noticed the knives attached to each end.

With practiced ease, the Rider swung his chain cracking it like a whip at Ken, seemingly paying Lily no mind. Worried for her safety, Buffy revealed her presence and tackled the Ghost Rider, sending them tumbling into the pool, just as the knife at the end of chain pierced Ken's shoulder, dragging him and Lily down into the pool with them.

* * *

Buffy wasn't sure what happened. One minute she was in the teen shelter, tackling the Ghost Rider into a pool of strange black water. The next she was in some dark hallway, her head aching, and with whom she now knew to be the Ghost Rider's human form, standing over her with the most intense glare she's ever seen.

"What part of stay out of my way, did you not understand?" the Rider growled.

"Well, sorry if I don't want to just sit around and watch you kill my friend" Buffy said bitingly, surprising herself as she hadn't realized she considered Lily a friend.

"I wasn't going to kill your friend!" the Rider snapped, eyes burning. "I only kill asesinos who deserve it. It's vengeance, Chica."

"Like I'm supposed to trust the word of a demon." In truth, everything he said lined up with what she'd seen so far, it was almost a little like her slaying, but Buffy couldn't look past the human victims of the Ghost Rider's vengeance, regardless of what they'd done, the supernatural had no business getting involved in human matters.

The Rider gave Buffy an odd look, surprised that the tiny blonde knew anything about demons, telling her, he obviously had no idea who she was.

"I'm no demon" he said, with absolute conviction. "Surprised you know anything about them. Who are you?"

Buffy ignored his question, her focus instead on Lily, who she just noticed leaning against the far wall, holding her head. Ignoring the Ghost Rider's indignant protests, as she moved past him, Buffy made her way to Lily's side.

Sighing in frustration, the Rider looked up to the ceiling, spotting the black pool they fell through.

 _Pool acts like some kind of portal. Might get us out of here._

"We're not making it up there" said Buffy, breaking the Rider's concentration. "We should get moving."

"Who put you in charge" the Rider scoffed, but still accompanied them nonetheless.

In silence, they navigated through a maze of halls, the entire time Lily and Buffy kept giving the Rider strange looks, obviously questioning whether or not it was a good idea to have him with them.

"So, what's your name?" Buffy asked. "I mean, I doubt your real name's 'Ghost Rider'."

"Robbie" he didn't see any harm in it, after all this was over, he doubted he'd see either girl again. "You?"

"Buffy."

Robbie gave her a funny look, obviously questioning if she was being serious. In the end, he just shrugged it off, assuming it was a nickname. _Seriously, who names their kid, 'Buffy'?_

Continuing through the maze, they eventually came out on a ledge, overlooking what appeared to be a large iron works. Huge vats of molten metal, heated the room, filling it with smoke. Upon closer inspection, they could see people being used as slave labor, kept in line by demon guards cracking at their backs with whips.

The sight proved too much for Lily, causing her to fall to her knees in tears.

"I always knew I'd end up here…sooner or later. I knew I belonged here."

"Where?" Buffy asked.

"Hell."

"This isn't Hell" said Robbie. And maybe it was because of his hellish alter ego, but Buffy couldn't help but feel like he'd be expert.

"Isn't it?" They looked back to see Ken standing there with a squad of guards at his back, looking far more confident with backup and a homefield advantage. "What is Hell but the total absence of hope? The substance, the tactile proof of despair. You're right, Lily. This is where you've been heading all your life. Just like Rickie."

"Rickie?"

"He forgot you" Ken said cruelly. "Well, it took him a long time. He remembered your name for years after he'd forgotten his own. But, in the end…"

"Years?" Lily questioned. "But…"

Ken smacked his forehead, as if he'd just remembered something. "Oh. Uh, interesting thing: time moves more quickly here than in your reality. A hundred long years will pass here. On Earth, it's just a day."

"So, you just work us till we're too old and spit us back out" Buffy said bitterly.

"That's the plan" Ken said glibly. "See, Lily, you'll die of old age before anyone wonders where you went. Not that anyone will, that's why we chose you."

"That's not going to happen" said Robbie, fire in his eyes, as he put himself between Ken's forces and the girls.

Despite himself, Ken took an involuntary step back, placing himself closer to his soldiers.

"Forget it, Rider. You can't protect them and fight all of us."

"I don't need his protection" said Buffy, moving to stand by Robbie's side.

"Really, and what're you going to do" Ken sneered. "I know your type. So, pathetically determined to run away from whatever it is you used to be."

That was the last straw for Buffy, as she felt something inside her come alive again for the first time since Angel's death. "No. You don't know who I am. If you did, you'd be running."

"Oh, and who are you?" Ken scoffed.

"I'm Buffy: The Vampire Slayer."

The demons gained hesitant looks, not liking their odds against both the Slayer and the Ghost Rider.

Robbie didn't wait for them to make up their minds. Transforming into the Ghost Rider, he materialized his chain, igniting the links in hellfire, and with one mighty swing sent the flaming pieces of metal shooting towards the demons, killing several of the battalion instantly.

Buffy took a more up close and personal approach, charging the demons, she planted her foot into the nearest one's face, as she brought her arm up to block a club attack from behind, before taking weapon's demonic owner out with a spin kick.

The Slayer was about to move onto her next opponent, when she heard a savage roar come from the Ghost Rider, next thing she knew flaming chains suddenly burst from the floor, piercing through Ken and his forces.

 _And after I went through my big dramatic reveal-thingy_ Buffy gave a mock glare to the Rider, as he transformed back into Robbie. "You know, I totally had that."

"My ways faster" said Robbie, not really paying her any mind. "We should start getting these people out of here."

Not about to argue with that, Buffy walked back over to the ledge and saw that the Ghost Rider's chains had also taken care of the demons in the iron works, leaving the human victims hesitantly optimistic that their suffering had finally come to an end.

"Anyone who's not having fun here, follow us!" Buffy cried out to the former slaves.

It took a little time but eventually they found their way to the exit portal. Robbie, Buffy, and Lily watched as one homeless person after another emerged from the pool, and made their way safely out of the Family Home, leaving the nightmare behind them.

"What do we do about…" Lily paused, as the black pool magically dried itself up, leaving behind nothing but an empty ceremonial pool. "Never mind."

* * *

A few days later, as she was leaving her apartment Buffy was surprised when Robbie's car pulled up in front of her.

"Hey, Slayer" said Robbie, once Buffy walked over.

"Hey yourself, Rider" she returned the greeting. "There something you want or are you just stalking me now?"

Robbie leaned over and opened the passenger door, silently inviting Buffy for a drive, obviously looking to talk. Despite her mixed feelings about his methods, Buffy still got in, letting Robbie decide where they were going as they settled in for an overdue talk.

* * *

AN: Unlike Johnny Blaze in the comics Robbie Reyes doesn't actually wrap his chain around himself and instead summoning it when needed.


	3. 1-3

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

Buffy wasn't sure what she was expecting when she got into Robbie's car, but it certainly wasn't long sullen silence.

"Hey, you came looking for me" she said impatiently. "So, say something or I'm gone."

"The hell is a 'Slayer'?" Robbie asked, though it sounded more like a demand.

"You don't know" said Buffy skeptically. "Wow, you are one uninformed demon." Robbie glared, obviously tired of having to tell her, he wasn't a demon. "Ok, fine. Into every generation, there is a chosen one. One girl in all the world. She alone will wield the strength and skill to stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness; To stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer."

"So, you're this 'chosen one', and you're going to save the world" Robbie scoffed. "Not with the way, you fight."

"I'm just out of practice." Buffy scowled, not appreciating the reminder of her inability to even slow the Ghost Rider down. "Now your turn. If you're not a demon, then what's your deal?"

To Buffy annoyance, Robbie made no effort to answer her question. So, she did what she did best, irritate until she got what she wanted. Her choice of method this time being to put her feet up on the dashboard. What she didn't count on was for it to suddenly heat up, forcing her to put her feet back down.

"What the hell?!" Buffy snapped, knowing Robbie had something to do with it.

"Don't mess with my baby" said Robbie.

"So, you obsess over your car and kill people. Wow you've got layers." Robbie rolled his eyes, having suspected Buffy would mention his victims eventually. "Look, I appreciate the help the other night, but I can't let you go around killing people. If you don't stop, I'll…"

"I'm not looking for a councilor" Robbie interrupted. "You don't know the first thing about me. So, don't go thinking you can save my soul. I'm telling girl, I sold mine."

"To the devil?" asked Buffy. She'd come across a lot of demons but not a single one seemed to be deal makers in the biblical sense.

"He was the only one buying."

Buffy honestly wasn't sure if Robbie was being literal or not. But before she could ask him to clarify, his phone started ringing. Her enhanced hearing, picked up the mention of someone named Gabe, and from the look on his face he obviously meant a lot to Robbie.

Unsurprisingly Robbie pulled the car over to let her out, only to raise a brow when Buffy stubbornly made no move to get out.

"That sounded really important" said Buffy. "And we're not finished here."

 _I don't have time for this._ Robbie just started driving, deciding he was better off focusing on Gabe rather than fighting with stubborn blonde.

* * *

Whatever was happening with Gabe, obviously wasn't good, as Robbie went speeding through the streets, racing past cars with all the skill of a professional driver.

"Calm down before you go all Carrot Top" said Buffy.

"Stress has nothing to do with it" said Robbie.

"What exactly is 'it'? Because I'm not sure I buy the whole "sold my soul" story." Buffy couldn't make sense of it. Why would some demon or devil…whatever give a human the power to kill demons?

"Well, I don't give a damn what you buy. I'm the one stuck with it."

"So, you want to get rid of it."

That was certainly a surprise, Buffy had assumed Robbie's deal was for the power of the Ghost Rider. So, then what was his deal for? The look Robbie's face, told Buffy he was done talking until they found Gabe. Yet she couldn't stop thinking about it. Nothing about Robbie was making any sense.

Buffy was dragged out of her thoughts when the car came to a sudden stop. Following Robbie's lead, Buffy got out of the Charger, and watched as he checked on a young boy in a wheelchair.

 _That must be Gabe,_ Buffy realized, noting a family resemblance.

"Nice" Buffy turned to see a group of street thugs, eye balling the Charger.

"I wouldn't touch it, if I were you" said Buffy, as the thugs' leader placed his hand on the hood. "The owner's a bit of a hot head."

"It's a shame to see something this nice, in the hands of someone who can't take care of her" said the lead thug, as he ogled Buffy's body. "What I'd really like to do is get a look under the hood."

"Hands off" Robbie growled, ignoring the worried look on his brother's face.

"Just admiring her, Homes" the thug said arrogantly. "Nothing wrong with that is there?"

Sick of the thug's cocky attitude, Robbie's eyes glowed, as he mentally commanded the car to heat up, burning the lead thug's hands.

"She runs a little hot" Buffy quipped.

Not appreciating her humor, one of the thugs tried to swing a bat at Buffy, only for the Slayer to catch and rip it out of his hands, before tossing him aside with little effort. Deciding to take a united front the rest of the thugs stepped forward to challenge Buffy, only for Robbie to stand in their way.

Buffy was about to tell Robbie she could handle herself, but before she could the thug in front took a swing at Robbie, who easily leaned back out of the way, and countered with a solid punch to the gut, knocking the air out of him. As the thug struggled to catch his breath, Robbie kicked him to the ground, slamming his foot into the thug's chest.

With both Buffy and Robbie standing against them the remaining thugs tried to them on in pairs. Blocking the rather sloppy punch coming her way, Buffy knocked the offending thug out cold with a blow to temple, before moving into a spin kick, knocking back the first thug's charging partner.

On his part, Robbie lacked the finesse of Buffy's technique. Picking up one of the thugs going after him, Robbie slammed him down into some nearby garbage bins. His partner ran up behind Robbie, managing to get him into a hold, only for him to slam his head back into the thug's nose. Breaking free, Robbie then grabbed the thug by the collar and proceeded to pummel him, only stopping once the thug lost consciousness.

With the thugs beaten, Buffy and Robbie were prepared to take their leave when suddenly the click of a gun drew their attention to where the thug's leader was holding a gun to Gabe's head.

Buffy froze, not feeling confident she could get to Gabe before the thug pulled the trigger. But then she felt something in the air that had her slayer senses buzzing. Taking a cautious look at Robbie, who was glaring at the thug holding a gun to his brother's head, she just barely noticed his eyes very briefly glow with hellfire.

Next thing she knew the lead thug stumbled away from Gabe, screaming in agony, at the sudden hole in his foot. Only her mystically enhanced senses, allowed Buffy to catch the brief glimpse of a what looked like a smaller version of the Ghost Rider's chain rising up through the ground where the thug was standing, its blade covered in blood as it vanished from sight.

With Gabe safe, Robbie grabbed the lead thug, knocked his gun away, and proceeded to savagely slam him against the Charger repeatedly, until he was left lying unconscious in the street.

"Was that **it**?" Buffy asked, assuming Robbie hadn't told his brother his secret.

"No. That was me" said Robbie, before turning his attention to his brother. "You good?"

"Still standing" Gabe joked. "You?"

"Sunshine and rainbows" Robbie smirked, before pointing to Buffy, who was smiling at the brotherly display. "Gabe, this is Buffy. Come on. Let's get you home before it gets dark."

Loading Gabe into the back of the car, Buffy insisted Robbie take him home before doing the same with her. The sound of Gabe excitedly recounting the fight faded into the background, as Buffy's thoughts turned to her mother for the first time since she ran away from Sunnydale.

* * *

Buffy ended up having dinner with Robbie and Gabe. The little boy had spent a good part of the meal teasing his older brother about him bringing a girl home. Buffy couldn't help but laugh, as she watched Robbie interact with his younger brother, it was just such a huge contrast from the dark menacing figure known as the Ghost Rider.

Time passed and eventually Robbie sent Gabe to bed, ignoring the younger boy's complaints about being too old for a bed time. Once his brother was squared away, Robbie led Buffy back to his car, intending to drop her back off at her apartment.

"So, I never heard your story" said Buffy. "And I'm guessing, Gabe doesn't know about your more fiery temper."

"If you were smart, you'd leave Gabe out of this" Robbie growled, his eyes flashing.

Buffy put her hands up, urging Robbie to remain calm.

"Hey, chill. I'm just trying to understand. I didn't see anything about your parents, so I'm guessing, you're all Gabe's got. So, why are you doing this? Why be the Ghost Rider if you want that thing gone?"

"I thought that if I settled the score, took down the gangbangers that put Gabe in a wheelchair, it would go away" Robbie admitted. "Didn't happen. So, I started settling other people's scores."

 _The x's on the mural_ , Buffy realized. "So, you think that if you right enough wrongs you can get rid of...it."

"Or else I have to ride with it forever" Robbie said grimly.

"But you've got to know you can't go around killing people."

Robbie gave Buffy a hard look. "This coming from someone called the 'Slayer'. Don't think you're any better than me, girl. You're a killer just the same. Difference between you and me is, I didn't run away."

Buffy glared at Robbie, not liking her role as Slayer compared to a common murderer. But it was the crack about her running away that cut Buffy the deepest.

* * *

A few days later Buffy called Lily to her apartment and made a show of giving her a tour of the place.

"This concludes our tour" said Buffy.

"It's really nice" said Lily.

"All the rents paid up for the next three weeks" Buffy pulled her diner uniform and gave it to Lily. "I spoke to Mitch at the diner. He said you can start on Thursday. He's, uh…he's kind of…repulsive, but, uh, he won't give you a hard time."

The girls sat down on the bed, as Lily now understood Buffy was giving her the apartment.

"Um…I'll call and check up on you" Buffy said uncertainly, not wanting to make the other girl uncomfortable.

"I'm not…great at taking care of myself" said Lily, obvious still hurting over the loss of Rickie.

"It gets easier" Buffy said understandingly. "Takes practice."

Lily looked down at the uniform Buffy had given her, specifically the nametag still pinned to it.

"Hey…can I be 'Anne'?" she smiled at Buffy, and the Slayer smiled back.

* * *

Once the newly christened Anne was all set up, Buffy got on the first bus to Sunnydale...she was going home. But unbeknownst to her, Buffy's departure hadn't gone unnoticed as a black 1969 Charger was parked nearby, where Robbie and Gabe watched as the Slayer took her leave.

"So, why'd you want to watch Buffy catch her bus?" Gabe asked.

"Just wanted to make sure she got on" said Robbie.

"Think you'll see her again?"

"Not if I'm lucky, bro."

With the Slayer, out of his hair Robbie drove off as the streets of Los Angeles once again belonged to the Ghost Rider.


	4. 1-4

AN: Time skip for this chapter. Everything happened as in canon up until episode 3x19 of BTVS

Disclaimer: I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

LAX, one of the largest international airports in the U.S.; a central hub for international travel. But tonight, it served a different purpose. As a small plane came to rest on the runway not far from a waiting dark limo. A pale faced man in a dark dirt stained suit, stepped out of the limo carrying a briefcase, just as man exited the plane with a large stone chest handcuffed to his right hand.

"Is he in the car?" the box man asked.

"No, I'll take you to him." said the pale man, as he opened the limo door.

"The Mayor was supposed to be here in person with the money" the box man scowled, as he kicked the limo door shut in frustration. "Well, the price just went up. I don't like surprises."

Suddenly the box man fell to the ground, dead from an arrow through the heart. The killer, a young beautiful brunette. Climbing down from her sniper's nest on a nearby building, she made her way to the pale man's side with bow in hand and a satisfied grin on her face.

"You killed him, Faith" said the pale man.

"What're you, the narrator?" Faith quipped, as she admired her handiwork. "Keys to the cuffs?"

Getting the message, the pale man searched the body but couldn't find the handcuff keys. Deciding to take a different approach, Faith pulled out an intricately designed knife.

"That's not going to cut through steel" said the pale man.

"No, but it'll cut through bone" Faith grinned.

As she started to remove her victim's hand, the sound of a loud engine roared through the night. If it were possible Faith's partner actually grew paler.

"What's your deal?" she demanded, as she noticed her partner's fear. "Didn't think a vamp could be such freaking wuss. It's just a car."

"It's not the car, Faith" said the vampire. "It's who it belongs to."

Curiosity peaked, Faith watched as a black 69 Charger came driving up towards them, the engine spewing flames.

"Ok, that's kind of badass" Faith smirked, as the Charger came to a stop, and Robbie Reyes stepped out. "And he's kind of hot. So, what about you makes a vamp shit themselves?"

"Hand over the box and you won't have to find out" said Robbie, pointing to the stone chest still handcuffed to the dead body.

"Can't do that" said Faith, stepping forward to challenge Robbie. "See, it's for my boss and I just got it at a killer price."

Catching Robbie by surprise, Faith delivered a solid kick to his chest, sending him flying into his car. Intrigued, Faith watched as the seemingly normal human walked off a blow from her as if it were nothing.

"You've got innocent blood on your hands" said Robbie, as his eyes began to glow with hellfire. He could feel the demon inside him demanding vengeance upon this woman. "It's time to pay for your sins."

"Bring it on, holy man" Faith smirked, accepting the challenge. She watched in fascination as the flesh started to burn off Robbie's face, as she found herself standing before the Ghost Rider. "Flaming skeleton, that's different."

Thinking Faith was crazy, her vampire partner tried to make a run for the limo. He didn't get far as the Rider's chain shot forward and wrapped around his body, burning the vampire to ashes upon contact.

"Great now, I gotta drive myself home" Faith complained.

Showing no appreciation for her flippant attitude, Ghost Rider whipped his chain at Faith. Rolling under the flaming chain, Faith jumped to her feet and delivered a few quick body blows, each harder than the last as the Rider proved more durable than her past opponents.

Not about to be her punching bag, Ghost Rider Backhanded Faith, knocking her back several feet, slamming into the back of the limo. Just like Robbie before her, Faith managed to brush it off. Getting to her feet, she felt blood drip from her lip, wiping it off on the back of her fist, Faith gave the Ghost Rider a feral grin.

"Oh, baby now this is gonna be fun."

Brandishing her new knife, Faith charged at Ghost Rider, bobbing and weaving as the flame headed demon whipped his chain at her. Closing the distance Faith jabbed her knife to the hilt into the Rider's heart.

Never having seen any creature survive a blade through the heart, Faith was shocked when the Rider grabbed hold of her. Though surprised by her strength, Faith was unable to escape the Ghost Rider's grip. Holding her at eye level, the Rider roared in Faith's face as he forced her to look into his eyes.

As she looked into the Ghost Rider's eyes, Faith felt something burning away at her psyche. In her mind, she saw the man she killed back in Sunnydale. The work she'd done for the Mayor of Sunnydale, and all the pain she'd brought to Buffy and her friends as a result.

And then it all went dark.

* * *

Mayor Richard Wilkins was sitting in his office waiting patiently for the delivery of his package, when suddenly his office door swung open and an injured Faith came stumbling inside.

"Faith, what happened?" the Mayor asked, as he helped her into a seat.

"I'm sorry, Sir. I lost the box." Faith explained what happened at the airport, including her battle with the Ghost Rider and his subsequent capture of the box. "I let you down. I know you said it was important."

To Faith's surprise, instead of yelling or having her killed, the Mayor lovingly rubbed his hand against her cheek to comfort her.

"No, Faithie this my fault" said the Mayor. "I should've known the Rider would've sensed the Box of Gavrok was in his city. You weren't prepared to deal with him."

"So, I just need the right tools" said Faith. "Load me up and I'll take the hothead out. I'll get the Box back."

"Love the enthusiasm Faith" the Mayor smiled. "But it's not easy to take out a Ghost Rider. No, I think this will take a different approach."

As Faith and the Mayor start to go over their plan to deal with Ghost Rider and retrieve the Box of Gavrok, they failed to notice a tiny listening device against the office window, and other end was Buffy listening to every word.

* * *

After spying on Faith and the Mayor's meeting, Buffy made her way to the Sunnydale library to meet up with her friends to discuss their next move.

"And you're certain they said Box of Gavrok?" Giles asked, as he started going through a large ancient book.

"Yep. Will's spy bug came through loud and clear" said Buffy, giving her redheaded friend a grateful look. "And His Honor needs this thing for his big A-Day ceremony."

"Then it is imperative that we retrieve the Box first" said Wesley, though no one was paying him any mind.

"Ah, I found it" Giles announced, getting the group's attention. "According to this the Box of Gavrok is a vessel of demonic energy. If the Mayor needs this to complete his Ascension then it's imperative that we retrieve it first."

Wesley sputtered as Buffy and the others voiced their agreement with Giles, despite he himself saying the exact same thing not even a minute before.

"Yeah, I'm done for a snatch and grab but LA's a big city" said Xander. "We don't even know who's got the Box."

"Actually, we do" said Buffy, turning to Giles and more reluctantly Wesley she asked: "Either of you ever heard of the Ghost Rider?"

Having gone up against the flame headed demon, Buffy could understand the fear stricken expressions on the two Englishmen's faces. Xander and Willow on the other hand were completely lost.

"Um, so I guess this Ghost Rider's a really bad guy" said Willow, looking to them for confirmation.

"Either that or the name of a heavy metal band" Xander quipped.

"Xander, believe me the Ghost Rider is no joking matter" Giles said gravely.

"Yes, the Ghost Rider is a relentless, merciless killer" Wesley agreed.

"Ok, I get it. This guy's a seriously bad dude" said Xander.

"You were in LA, Buffy" said Willow, turning the group's attention to the Slayer. "Did you hear anything about this Rider guy?"

"I actually met him" Buffy confessed, getting shocked reactions from Giles and Wesley.

"You-You've actually met the Ghost Rider" said Wesley shell-shocked.

"Yeah, it was no big. You've seen one flaming skeleton you've seen them all right." Buffy was starting to feel uncomfortable by the way Giles and Wesley kept staring at her. "Ok, seriously, I know he's basically everything Wesley just said but it's not like he's some Big Bad."

"Ok, I'm confused" said Xander, with Willow looking just as lost. "'Relentless, merciless killer' sounds like a Big Bad to me."

"Yeah. If you met him, why didn't you, you know slay him, Buffy?" asked Willow.

"Because, we were working together on some demon thing before I came home" said Buffy, not wanting to go into detail about how she'd lost against the Ghost Rider. "He's very serious about the whole not killing 'innocent' people thing."

Xander scoffed, unable to believe anything not human could be anything but evil. Buffy despite not agreeing with his methods felt like she should defend Robbie. But before she could say anything, Giles caught not only her but Xander and Willow by surprise by supporting Buffy's claims.

"Make no mistake" Giles said, as he retrieved an old leather bound book. With Xander, Willow, and Buffy looking over his shoulder Giles opened to a page depicting what the Slayer recognized as the Ghost Rider. The only difference being that instead of Robbie's black racing jacket, the Rider on the page was wearing a worn-out duster, a cowboy hat, and was mounted on a flaming horse. "The Ghost Rider is indeed a remorseless killer but he adheres to the condition that no innocent blood be spilled."

"A flaming skeleton cowboy" Xander said incredulously. "Well that shouldn't be too hard to track down."

"He doesn't look like that" said Buffy. "I mean flaming skeleton, yeah. But the rest of it's wrong."

"Not surprising" said Giles. "This is simply the earliest Ghost Rider the Council has encountered."

"'Earliest'?" Willow repeated, catching the strange wording. "You mean there's more than one?"

"There have been several Ghost Riders through the ages" Giles explained. "Though the Council has made contact with a small few, even they aren't sure just how long the Ghost Rider has existed."

"So, what he's like a male Slayer?" Xander asked. "One dies and the next one turns all spooky-scary-skeleton."

"Not quite. Unlike with the Slayer there doesn't seem to be any certain line of succession. Centuries can pass before the next Ghost Rider makes themselves known. And each of the Riders the Council has on record are all of various different nationalities, sex, and age, with no obvious common traits between them. All the Council knows about the Riders is that they all possessed something called the Spirit of Vengeance."

"So, this Ghost Rider's human" said Xander, now sounding less hostile. "Are you kidding? I've been possessed and all I got was a serious taste for raw meat."

This earned Xander looks of disbelief from Buffy and Willow. And while Giles's was more understated the look in his eyes as he cleaned his glasses said he didn't find what Xander said funny either.

"I believe we're getting off topic" said Wesley, having finally found his voice since Buffy revealed she's worked with the Ghost Rider. "Buffy, contact the Ghost Rider and have him deliver the Box of Gavrok here."

Buffy's eyes narrowed, having never appreciated Wesley's high and mighty attitude. But she had to admit having Robbie bring them the Box was the safest move.

"One problem with that" said Buffy. "I don't have his phone number."

Wesley sputtered, as it was now evident he'd overestimated the relationship between the Slayer and the Rider.

"It's no problem" said Willow. "If you have his name we can look it up."

"Robbie Reyes" Buffy told Willow, before turning to Wesley and Giles. "So, either of you want to tell me why you're afraid of the Ghost Rider?"

Buffy smirked, enjoying the matching uncomfortable looks on Giles and Wesley's faces.

* * *

A few days later in LA, the younger of the Reyes brothers was sitting outside his school waiting for Robbie to pick him up.

Gabe wasn't sure what but he was certain something was bothering Robbie. His brother had been acting strange for months, going out late at night and coming home with blood in his clothes. Gabe was relieved when Robbie showed up with Buffy, thinking his brother was finally doing something for himself instead of focusing on taking care of him.

But of course, Buffy left and Robbie stuck to his strange behavior. Then the other day their house got a call from Buffy and Gabe overheard her and Robbie having a hushed conversation about some kind of box. And Gabe couldn't help but worry his brother had gotten into something dangerous.

"Hey you Gabe?" Gabe looked over to see a beautiful dark haired woman smiling at him. "I'm Faith." Gabe gave Faith a suspicious look, knowing better than to talk with strangers. "Robbie got held up at work and asked me to watch you for a bit."

"I don't need a babysitter" Gabe grumbled, Faith's words striking a nerve.

Faith had to fight to keep the smirk off her face, certain she'd successfully distracted the kid from his suspicions.

"Sorry, I just meant we're going to hangout for a bit" Faith smiled, as a dark tinted limousine pulled up in front of the school. "Hey Gabe, you ever ride in a limo before?"


	5. 1-5

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

Faith wheeled Gabe into the Mayor's office, planting him in front of his desk. Mayor Wilkins smiled proudly at the girl and stood to offer Faith his seat, while he stood to address Gabe, smiling at the frightened child.

"Gabriel Reyes, it is such a pleasure to meet you."

"What do you want?" Gabe demanded, failing to keep the fear out of his voice despite his best efforts.

"Direct. Right to the point, I like that" the Mayor smiled. "Well, Gabe – do you mind if I call you Gabe?" taking the boy's silence as consent, the Mayor continued. "Well, Gabe, it's like this: your brother has a certain box." Gabe's eyes widened as he remembered the conversation he'd overheard Robbie having about delivering something to Buffy in Sunnydale. "Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Good. Then this should be easy. You see, that box belongs to me and I'd really like it back. And since your brother took something I care about, I thought it only fair to return the favor."

* * *

Across town Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel, Wesley gathered in the high school library awaiting Robbie's arrival with the Box of Gavrok.

As they waited Buffy couldn't help but wonder if she should've tried to meet Robbie somewhere else, as she thought back to the other day when she asked Giles and Wesley why they were afraid of the Ghost Rider. While Wesley had stubbornly refused to explain, Giles had confessed that the Council in the past had tried to "recruit" past Riders to their side, meaning they tried to forcibly gain control of them. It never ended well for the Council and was even worse for the Watchers that were directly responsible for Slayers. Apparently, the Spirit of Vengeance thought taking girls from their homes and turning them into the Council's weapon was a sin…who knew?

And then of course there was Angel, who she'd asked to join them more out of habit then any actual reasoning. Buffy wasn't sure how the Rider would react to her vampire, part of her was afraid that having a human soul wouldn't be enough to keep the Spirit of Vengeance from trying to burn her boyfriend to ashes.

The library doors harshly swung open as Robbie marched into the room, without the Box and with a murderous look in his eyes.

"Robbie, what happened?" Buffy asked. "Where's the Box?"

"What the hell did you do?" Robbie demanded, ignoring the Slayer's questions.

"I suggest you calm down" Angel growled, stepping forward to come to Buffy's defense.

Not even acknowledging the vampire's presence, Robbie's burning eyes stayed focused on Buffy, demanding answers.

"I don't know what you're talking about" said Buffy. "I thought we were past the whole Slayer vs Rider thing?"

"That was before I met a second one" said Robbie. "So much for that 'chosen one' crap. Now tell me how she knew about my brother!"

Buffy blinked not sure what to say to that. She hadn't hidden the fact that Robbie had a brother but only her friends (and Wesley) should've known about Gabe, and she knew none of them would tell Faith about the younger Reyes brother.

Not liking the way Robbie was cornering Buffy, Angel snarled and pushed him back against the wall. Buffy screamed for Angel to stop, but it was too late. Blaming Buffy's group for his brother's kidnapping, Robbie was looking for a fight and Angel made the mistake of volunteering.

Catching the vampire by surprise, Robbie floored Angel with a solid hook to the jaw. Before he had a chance to respond, Robbie was on top of Angel pounding his face in.

Fueled by his rage and the Spirit of Vengeance, Robbie proved too much for Angel, overpowering the vampire's attempts to fight him off.

Unwilling to stand aside and watch her boyfriend take a beating, Buffy moved in and pulled Robbie off of Angel. Though embarrassed by how easily Robbie over powered him, Angel assured Buffy he was fine and stepped back to allow her to deal with the Rider.

"Man, that was satisfying to watch" Xander said shamelessly.

Angel just glared at the teenager, not at all surprised Xander would enjoy watching him get his ass kicked.

"We didn't tell Faith about Gabe" Buffy told Robbie. "But we'll do everything we can to help. I promise."

"Now see here, our first priority has to be the disposal of the Box of Gavrok" said Wesley. The Watcher immediately regretted it as he found himself under the Ghost Rider's burning glare. "Um, I mean we'll do everything in our power to help."

"Wow, never thought I'd see that" said Willow. They'd all grown used to Wesley's pompous attitude. It was refreshing to see him taken down a peg with just a look.

The Watcher in question wisely chose not to say anything. With Wesley handled Robbie explained how he'd first came into contact with Faith, how he'd taken the Box from her. And how he his brother's school called him about Gabe being picked up by an unknown woman, matching Faith's description.

"Here's what I don't get "said Buffy. "How's Faith still alive? I figure she's got some serious vengeance coming her way."

"Don't know" Robbie confessed. "I looked into her soul, I burned it. Never had someone survive that before."

What Robbie didn't mention was he saw something else inside Faith, mixed with her soul. It was something dark and definitely not human. Whatever it was, Robbie saw a weaker version inside Buffy when they fought, almost like an echo of something left behind.

"Hold up" said Xander. "You're telling me you can look into people's souls and punish them for all the bad stuff they do?"

"Yeah" Robbie confirmed , confused as to why Xander sounded so excited.

"Any chance you could take a look at our principal?"

Robbie narrowed his eyes, not appreciating the attempt at humor while his brother was in danger.

"Putting Xander's stupidity aside" Giles spoke up, saving the teen from further digging his grave. "Perhaps it was the essence of the Slayer that saved Faith's life."

"Yeah, well she wasted it going after Gabe" said Robbie, promising a gruesome end for Faith.

Buffy, Willow, and Xander traded uncomfortable looks as the only ones in the room uncomfortable with the taking of a human life.

"We know what they want" said Buffy. "We'll call the Mayor and arrange a tradeoff."

Wesley looked like he wanted to protest the idea. But one look from Robbie was enough to force the Watcher to keep his peace.

* * *

That night, Robbie and the Scooby Gang waited in the school cafeteria for the Mayor's arrival. Suddenly the cafeteria lights went out leaving them to rely on the dim moonlight.

"Guess their shy" Xander quipped.

"I can see alright" said Angel.

Two vampires then pushed open the doors, followed by the Mayor and Faith, who was wheeling in a frightened Gabe.

"Well, isn't this exciting" the Mayor chuckled. "Clandestine meetings in the dark of night. Exchange of prisoners. I just feel like we should all be wearing trench coats."

"Give me, my brother" Robbie demanded, eyes burning with hellfire.

"Careful hot head" said Faith, as she pressed her knife against Gabe's throat. "I see even the tiniest spark off you and it's goodbye Gabe."

Robbie growled but back offed, he couldn't risk his brother's safety.

"Now then, Miss Summers, why don't you hand over my box and we can get this over with" said the Mayor. The Mayor gave Buffy an appraising look, as the Slayer placed the Box of Gavrok in his hands. "So, you're the little girl that's been causing me all this trouble. She's pretty Angel. A little skinny. Still don't understand why it couldn't work out with you and my Faith. Guess you've got a strange taste in women."

"Well, what can I say? I like them sane" said Angel.

Gabe let out a small cry as Faith. A look from the Mayor told the dark Slayer to stop as he directed her attention to Robbie who looked seconds away from unleashing the Rider.

"Well, I wish you kids the best" said the Mayor, continuing his appraisal of Buffy and Angel. "But if you don't mind a bit of fatherly advice, I just don't see much of a future for you two. I don't sense a lasting relationship. And not just because I plan to kill you. You two have a bumpy road ahead."

"I don't care about their failed romance" Robbie growled, ignoring the looks of disbelief on Buffy and Angel's faces, that he'd actually agree with the Mayor. "Give me Gabe, now!"

"Temper Mr. Reyes. Oh, that reminds me, I have a bit of advice for you" the Mayor looked Robbie in the eyes unblinkingly. "You should be careful about who you make deals with."

Recognizing the Mayor's words as double cross, Robbie snapped and Gabe watched in stupefied terror as the brother he idolized transformed into the vengeful Ghost Rider. The Ghost Rider roared as the confident smile never left the Mayor's face.

Fueled by rage Ghost Rider whipped his chain at the Mayor only for he, Faith, and their vampire escorts to vanish from the room, taking both Gabe and the Box of Gavrok with them.

* * *

Reappearing in his office the Mayor ordered his vampires to take Gabe to his room, warning them that the boy was to remain unharmed before taking a seat behind his desk.

"Wow did you see the look on his face?" the Mayor said excitedly, as he placed a chipped arcane amulet on his desk. "Good thing we had this little beauty."

Sitting across from him, Faith smiled weakly. Despite her wounds healing and having never even come close to him, she could still feel the Ghost Rider's flames burning beneath her skin.

"You ok, Faithie?" the Mayor asked, frowning at the girl's shaky appearance.

"Five by Five" Faith lied. "Now why don't you pop open that box? Went through a lot of trouble to get it."

The Mayor frowned, not believing Faith at all.

"Don't you worry about that" he said comfortingly. "We've got the Box. We're all set for the Ascension. You just get some rest."

* * *

After calming Robbie down enough to return to human form, he and the Scoobies returned to the library where they found Wesley waiting for them with a smug look on his face.

"So now the Mayor has the Box of Gavrok" he chastised, completely disregarding the fact they'd failed to recover Gabe. "As of now, we are right back where we started. Wouldn't you say?" his words directed at Buffy.

Enraged by the Watcher's blatant dismissal of his brother, Robbie grabbed Wesley by the lapels and slammed the frightened man up against a wall.

"You don't worry about the Mayor" Robbie growled, eyes glowing with hellfire. "I'm going to kill him. If you do anything to get in the way of that, you're next Watcher."

"Uh…Um…Y-Yes of course" Wesley whimpered, as he struggled against Robbie's grip.

Dropping the Watcher, Robbie left the library leaving Buffy and her friends to check over the frightened Wesley. Vengeance had come to Sunnydale and it wouldn't leave until Faith and the Mayor were engulfed in flames.


	6. 1-6

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

The time of Ascension was drawing near. Oblivious to the impending danger the students of Sunnydale High went about collecting their caps and gowns, eager for their graduation. A sense of excitement lost for those in the know.

"I can't believe this loser look" complained one Cordelia Chase, Xander's ex-girlfriend and part-time member of the Scooby Gang. "I lobbied so hard for the teal. Maroon is so not my color."

"At least it'll hide the blood stains" Xander quipped. "Not that'll mean much considering I'm probably going to die tomorrow."

Cordelia raised a brow at Xander, "Excuse me?"

"I'm telling you, I woke up the other day with this feeling in my gut. I just know there's no way I'm getting out of this school alive."

"Wow, talk about positive thinking" Cordelia said sarcastically. "I thought this new Robbie guy is supposed to be a heavy hitter."

"He is and that's great" said Xander. "Except the Mayor's still got his brother and we have no idea what the hell this Ascension thing is supposed to be."

Suddenly Anya – the former vengeance demon – barged in between Xander and Cordelia, a terrified look on her face.

"Did you say Ascension?" she asked fearfully.

* * *

While the students were getting ready for graduation Robbie, Buffy, Giles, Willow, and Wesley were in the library the two Englishmen were in the middle of a fencing match, while the three teenagers were busy going over a news article reporting the death of Lester Wirth, a local professor.

"It's got to be Faith" said Buffy.

"Are you sure?" Giles asked, having overheard the Slayer's comment.

"Who else could it be?"

Taking the paper from Buffy, Giles read over the article while absent mindedly parrying Wesley's sword strikes. "There's nothing in here that bellows motive."

"Random killing" Willow suggested. "Maybe a fit of rage? Everybody does seem to be going a bit mad lately. Faith just has something of a head start."

"Doesn't read" said Buffy. "I think it's homework."

Fully invested in the conversation, Giles put down his sword and said, "The Mayor wanted the good professor out of the way."

"Which leads to the question, how come? I'm gonna destroy the entire city, but I take the time to kill harmless Lester first?"

"This Lester guy must've had or knew something" said Robbie.

"Then I wanna know too" said Buffy. "The Mayor's trying to hide. I say we go seek."

"Ah! By attempting to keep a valuable clue from us, the Mayor may have inadvertently led us right to it" Wesley announced dramatically, as he flourished his sword.

"What page are you on, Wes, cause we already got there" said Buffy, rolling her eyes.

The Watcher cleared his throat, attempting to hide his embarrassment, "Yes, well, you will go tonight. Look over his apartment. Report back anything of note."

"I just love it when you take charge, you man, you."

Wesley blushed at Buffy's teasing as he struggled to understand what she was to say, "Uh, we…was that a yes? I have trouble keeping track."

"I'll go" Buffy confirmed.

"Be careful" said Giles. "If Faith should show up…"

"I don't think she'll show" said Buffy. "Been there, killed that. She's not much for follow-up."

"Nonetheless, be watchful. Faith has you at a disadvantage Buffy."

"Because I'm not crazy or because I don't kill people?"

"Both actually. Perhaps it'd be best to bring Robbie with you?"

"Whatever it takes to get Gabe back" said Robbie, agreeing to work with Buffy.

"Don't let your feelings cloud your judgement" Wesley advised. "If possible it'd be best to capture Faith. We still need information on the Ascension."

Xander then came charging into the library, pulling Anya behind him "You guys want to know about the Ascension? Well meet the only living person who's ever been to one."

Everyone looked to Anya with interest urging the Ex-Vengeance Demon to tell them what she knew.

"About eight hundred years ago in the town of San Venganza, there was a sorcerer there who achieved Ascension. Became the embodiment of the demon Lo-Hash. I was there cursing a shepherd who had been unfaithful. His wife had wished that all his sheep would lie with..." Anya paused as she realized she was in the same room as the Ghost Rider.

"Just get to the point" said Robbie, his eyes glowing as his thoughts turned to his still captive brother. "I've got a more personal score to settle."

"Sorry" Anya squeaked. "Lo-Hash was ... It-it decimated the town within hours. Maybe three people got out. I've seen some horrible things in my time. I've been the cause of most of them, actually, but this..."

"Ahem, I'm sorry, but Lo-Hash was a four-winged soul killer, am I right?" Wesley interrupted, looking to Giles for confirmation, which he did. "I was given to understand that they're not that fierce. Of all the demons that we've faced..."

"You've never seen a demon" said Anya, much to the group's confusion.

"Uh, excuse me?" Buffy raised a hand calling Anya's attention. "Kind of been dealing with them professionally, four years running."

Anya shook her head and explained, "All the demons that walk the Earth are tainted, are human hybrids like vampires. The Ascension means that a human becomes pure demon. They're different."

"Different?" Giles questioned. "How?"

"Well, for one thing, they're bigger."

"How much bigger?" Buffy asked, almost fearing the answer.

"A lot bigger" Anya stressed.

"What else can you tell us about the Ascension?" Giles asked.

Before Anya could continue Willow and was not happy to see the ex-demon.

"How come evil girl's in the mix?"

"Anya witnessed an Ascension" Giles explained to Willow.

"Oh" Willow certainly wasn't expecting that. "Ok then."

"What do you know about the Box of Gavrok?" Robbie asked Anya.

"Doesn't ring a bell" said Anya. "But if it's for the Ascension, it probably holds the ritual's contract."

"Ritual contract?" Willow questioned. "I didn't think lawyers would be involved."

"A sign this is the devil's work" Xander joked.

"Anya, what is this contract?" Giles asked.

"Something like the Ascension can't be done with human spell work alone" said Anya. "In order to complete the ritual a pact has to be made with an extremely powerful demon."

* * *

The last thing Joyce was expecting was to come home and find her daughter stuffing her clothes in a duffle bag.

"What are you doing? You're running away again? And you're taking my clothes."

"Mom, I need you to leave town" said Buffy. "Tonight."

"Buffy, I'd miss your graduation" said Joyce, confused by her daughter's behavior.

"Yeah, that's sort of the idea."

"There's no way. I wouldn't dream…"

"Mom, graduation is a pointless ceremony where you sit around and listen to a bunch of boring speeches until someone hands you a piece of paper that says you graduated which you already know and maroon does nothing for my complexion, so don't argue, ok?"

"What, is some terrible demon going to attack the school?" Joyce asked sarcastically.

Buffy gave her mother a look and continued packing.

"Oh, I see. Oh, you know, Buffy, looking back on everything that's happened, maybe I should have sent you to a different school."

"Just promise me that you'll be far away from here" Buffy begged.

"I'm not leaving you to face an awful monster. If I go anywhere, you're going with me."

"You know that I can't" Buffy sighed. She really wished she could.

Joyce crossed her arms in stubborn defiance, "Well then I can't either."

Buffy stopped packing and turned to her mother with a look of regret on her face, "Mom, I know that sometimes you wish I were different."

A pained expression appeared on Joyce's face, "Buffy, no…"

"I wish I could be a lot of things for you. A great student, a star athlete, remotely normal. I'm not. But there is something I do that I can do better than anybody else in the world. I'm gonna fight this thing, but I can't do it and worry about you."

"Buffy, you just can't…"

"You stay, you'll get me killed. You'll have to trust me on this. Can you do that?"

Reluctantly Joyce agreed, to Buffy's great relief.

* * *

That night Buffy and Robbie went to investigate Prof. Wirth's apartment. They were going through the late professor's books and papers, searching for any reason why the Mayor would want him dead when suddenly Angel made his presence known, stumbling over the door jamb.

"Ow."

"Stealthy" Buffy smiled affectionately.

"Not my best entrance" Angel said bashfully. "I think they were mopping in the halls."

Robbie rolled his eyes, not feeling patient for the odd couple's antics.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded harshly.

"I checked in with Giles. Figured Buffy would appreciate the better company" Angel said coldly.

"Easy guys" said Buffy, placing herself between them. "We can't start fighting each other."

Scowling, Robbie went back to work searching for clues, leaving Buffy to deal with Angel's sour mood.

"You know he's just waiting to finish me" said Angel.

"What're you talking about?" said Buffy. "Robbie's just stressed about his brother. Besides you have a soul now. He's got no reason to go all vengeful on you."

Angel didn't say anything though he suspected having a soul wouldn't be enough to wipe his slate clean with the Rider. More likely the Rider was simply keeping Angel around until he was no longer useful.

Just then the person in question walked up carrying a manila folder.

"What's that?" asked Buffy, pointing to the file.

"Some report" said Robbie. "Couldn't make sense of any of it."

"Let's bring it to Giles, see if he can."

Robbie, Buffy, and Angel then went about collecting the professor's files for Giles when suddenly an arrow came smashing through a window and pierced straight through Angel's back.

"Angel!" Buffy cried, as she rushed to her boyfriend's side. "Robbie help!"

Though he had no love for the vampire, Robbie helped Buffy get Angel to his car. As they drove off they failed to notice Faith looking down at them from a nearby rooftop, a bow held proudly in her hand.

Pleased with her work, Faith turned and handed her bow to one of the Mayor's vampires.

"You missed the heart" the monster commented.

"Meant to" Faith smirked.


	7. 1-7

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

Returning to the library Robbie and Buffy helped Angel into a chair and stepped back to allow Giles to remove the arrow.

"Not too much blood here" he noted.

"I heal pretty fast" said Angel. "I should be alright."

Retrieving the first-aid kit, Buffy went to work cleaning Angel's wound.

"I'm just glad Faith's such a suck shot."

"Thought slayers were supposed to be good" said Robbie. Something about this didn't sit right with him. He was ripped from his thoughts as Angel slumped out of his chair, unconscious.

Buffy immediately rushed to the vampire's side, "He's burning up."

Suspecting it was the cause, Giles sniffed the arrow that shot Angel, smelling something on its head, "Poison, I suspect."

"Will you be able to find out what it is?" Buffy asked fearfully.

"The Council has all the known toxins on file, mystical or otherwise" said Wesley. "I'll contact them immediately."

Buffy gave Wesley a grateful look before turning her attention to Robbie, who was standing off to the side acting as if what happened to Angel was of no concern to him. And just like that Buffy's earlier fears about the Ghost Rider killing Angel resurfaced.

"Robbie, I need your help, please."

To Buffy's relief, Robbie moved to help her get Angel to his car, though he showed no signs of concern for the vampire.

* * *

Meanwhile at the Mayor's office, the man in question had just placed the Box of Gavrok on his desk when Faith arrived, happily reporting her success.

"Applause, applause" the Mayor smiled. "And no further problems, I hope?"

"Nah, whatever the matchstick did to me, I think it's over" Faith grinned, as she took a seat in front of the Mayor's desk. "So, what's next?

"The Ritual of Gavrok. I have to ingest several of the inhabitants of this box."

Faith raised an eyebrow, confused by the term. "Ingest?"

"Eat." To make his point, the Mayor cracked open the Box and removed a black spider from inside and proceeded to eat it, much to Faith's disgust.

"You're wicked gross."

"Well, you don't have to watch" the Mayor chuckled. "Just, you know, go home, take it easy. It's a big day tomorrow."

"You gotta give me something to do" Faith begged. "There's no way I'm sleeping. Don't you need anyone dead? Or maimed? I can settle for maimed."

The Mayor laughed, loving the girl's enthusiasm for violence, "You little firecracker."

This brought a small smile to Faith's face, "My mom used to call me that when I was little. I was always running around…"

The Mayor gave Faith a look of concern at her sudden silence. Taking a moment to collect herself, Faith turned her thoughts away from the past.

"Tomorrow, at the Ascension and all that, am I going to get to fight?"

"If everything goes smoothly, you won't have to. But how often do things go smoothly?"

"So, you'll still need me in there?" Faith asked, mentally cursing herself for how weak and vulnerable she sounded.

"Always" the Mayor smiled. "Now get some rest."

Seeing he wasn't going to give her another assignment, Faith got up and headed for the door, stopping for a moment to wish the Mayor luck with his ritual.

"It appears my theory was correct."

The Mayor watched as an elderly man dressed in a dark suit and cloak, carrying a silver cane adorned with a crystal skull, emerged from the darkest corner of the room. With every step, he took towards the Mayor's desk, the old man's shadow stretched out until it finally the entirety of the wall behind him was covered in the silhouette of a crooked demonic creature.

"Mephistopheles" the Mayor bowed respectfully, not at all surprised by the demon's sudden appearance. "I really must thank you for that amulet you gave me and for telling me about the younger Reyes brother. And yes, you were right. Nothing happened after Faith, poisoned Angel."

"Understandable" said Mephistopheles. "The Ghost Rider's Penance Stare is meant to punish the human soul for the pain brought upon the innocent. Even if only through those burning embers left on your pet's soul. Regardless of what he calls himself that vampire is far from innocent."

A grim understanding struck the Mayor to his core, as he realized just what would happen to Faith after his Ascension.

"It seems you understand, Richard" Mephisto chuckled darkly. "Yes, the sacrifice of all those young souls tomorrow will have consequences for your girl. I doubt she'll survive."

"What would it cost to extend the Ascension to Faith?" the Mayor asked.

"I'm sure we can come to an agreement" said Mephisto, as a scroll of parchment appeared in his hand. "Perhaps you've heard of San Venganza."

* * *

Across town in the abandoned mansion, Angel has claimed as his own, the vampire laid in bed, asleep with Buffy doing her best to keep his temperature down. Robbie had taken off, having no desire to sit around leaving Giles to watch over the couple.

"It'll be okay" she murmured "You'll be okay."

The sound of the front door opening, catches Buffy's attention. Entering the central chamber, she catches Wesley as he arrives, looking upset.

"Did you reach the council?" Giles asked.

"Yes" Wesley said hesitantly. "They, they couldn't help."

"Couldn't?" Buffy said skeptically. Wesley sounded awfully confident earlier about the Council's resources.

"Wouldn't" the Watcher confessed. "It's not Council policy to cure vampires."

Giles looked at the heartbroken Buffy then at Wesley, "Did you explain that these were special circumstances?"

"Not under any circumstances, and yes, I did try to convince them" Wesley asserted.

"Try again" Buffy demanded.

"Buffy, they're very firm. We're talking about laws that have existed longer than civilization."

"I'm talking about watching my lover die. I don't have a clue what you're talking about and I don't care."

Giles moved to Buffy's side, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "Buffy, we'll find a cure."

Wesley shook his head, "The Council's orders are to concentrate on..."

"Orders?" Buffy glared at the Watcher. "I don't think I'm gonna be taking any more orders. Not from you, not from them. So, go back to your Council and tell them, until the next Slayer comes along, they can close up shop. I'm not working for them anymore."

"Don't you see what's happening?" Wesley panicked. "It's the same strategy they used on Robbie. Faith poisoned Angel to distract you, to keep you out of the Mayor's way, and it's working. You need a strategy."

"I have a strategy" Buffy said coldly. "You're not in it."

"This is mutiny."

Buffy took a breath, "I like to think of it as graduation." She glared at Wesley before turning to Giles, "I can't stay here any longer. I'm gonna see if I can help the others. Can you watch Angel?"

"Of course," Giles nodded. "I'll let you know immediately if there are any changes."

Wesley was in shock. Never in the Council's history has a Slayer quit, "Buffy, you don't know what you're doing."

"Get a job" Buffy sneered, as she walked out of the room.

* * *

By the time Buffy arrived at the school chemistry lab, Willow and Xander managed to identify the poison used on Angel.

"Finding the poison wasn't that hard" said Willow. "It's a mystical compound. The Latin name translates roughly to Killer of the Dead. Used on vampires."

"And the cure?" Buffy asked hopefully.

Willow found she couldn't look her friend in the eye, hating to have to crush Buffy's hopes, "There aren't a lot of instances of it being cured."

"But there are some?" even a slim chance was enough for Buffy at this point.

"One or two" Willow nodded. "Pretty vague accounts. How is he?"

"Hold it" said Xander, getting the girls' attention as he read through one of Giles' books.

"You got something?" Buffy asked.

"I'm not sure. Ok. Killer of the Dead. That's our boy, and here's a vamp that walked away from it."

"Does it talk about the cure?" Willow asked, now daring to hope.

"Damn" Xander looked at the girls then back at the book, as if not quite believing what it said. "The only way to cure this thing is to drain the blood of a Slayer."

Buffy took a moment to let the words sink in, "Good."

"Good?" Xander gasped in shock. "What did I miss?"

"No, it's perfect" Buffy said darkly. "Angel needs to drain a Slayer, then I'll bring him one."

"Buffy, if Angel drains Faith's blood, it'll kill her" Willow said hesitantly.

"Not if she's already dead."

Stunned her friends could only watch as Buffy left the lab. Entering the library, Buffy immediately headed for the book cage, where Giles stored her weapons.

"So, you're really going through with it?" Buffy turned to see Robbie standing by the door, obviously having heard about her decision to go after Faith.

Buffy glared at Robbie, "You are the last person who gets to judge me."

"Not judging" Robbie shrugged, not at all bothered by the blonde Slayer's attitude. "It's just you were pretty stubborn before about not killing humans."

"What do you care?!" Buffy snapped, her temper flaring. "Maybe, I'm just trying things your way."

"You want vengeance fine" said Robbie, unimpressed with Buffy's breakdown. "But that vampire's stained with a lot of blood. You sure he's worth it."

Buffy gave Robbie the most hateful glare, "He has a soul. And unlike you, he's not willing to throw it away on some deal."

Grabbing a knife from the weapons cache, Buffy pushed past Robbie to begin her own hunt for vengeance.

* * *

With the help of a reluctant Willow, Buffy located Faith's apartment. Upon arrival, she found her dark counterpart relaxing with a comic book, and her music blaring. Slipping inside, Buffy cut off the music, getting Faith's attention.

"Thought I'd stop by" she said coldly.

"Is he dead yet?" Faith smirked.

Buffy shook her head. "He's not gonna die. It was a good try, though. Your plan?"

"Uh-huh" Faith grinned sadistically, as she got up to face Buffy. "Figured we've already got old flame head's baby bro, why not get at you too. The Mayor got me the poison. Said it was wicked painful."

"There's a cure."

"Damn. What is it?" Faith feigned interest as the two Slayers circled each other.

"Your blood."

"Not so high and mighty, anymore are you?" Faith smirked. "You gonna feed me to Angel? You know you're not going to take me alive."

Buffy nodded, steeling herself for what she planned to do. "Not a problem."

"Well, look at you. All dressed up in big sister's clothes."

"You told me I was just like you. That I was holding it in."

The Slayers stopped circling and approached the center of the room, coming face to face.

"Ready to cut loose?"

"Try me."

"Okay then. Give us a kiss."

Taking the invitation, Buffy landed a solid right hook to Faith's jaw. Turning with the blow, Faith returned the favor with a back-fist to Buffy's cheek.

So, began the battle of the Slayers. Buffy and Faith traded blows with each evading, blocking, or countering the other's attacks. Until Faith managed to break past Buffy's defenses, kicking the blonde into a full-length mirror, shattering the glass on impact.

Picking herself up, Buffy tackled Faith to the ground and unleashed a relentless barrage of punches on her dark counterpart. Needing an escape, Faith wrapped her legs around Buffy and with a twist of her hips, rolled the blonde off her.

Getting to her feet, Faith then grabbed Buffy by the hair and slammed her up against a wall.

"Not getting tired, are you? I'm just starting to feel it."

The obvious pleasure in Faith's voice, fueled Buffy's rage, as the blonde pushed herself off the wall and elbowed Faith in the nose. Stunned Faith was left open for Buffy to land a kick to her chest knocking her back and sending her crashing through the back window and out onto the terrace.

Dazed from the fall, Faith struggled to recover from the impact when she felt something click around her wrist. Looking up, she saw that Buffy had handcuffed their wrists together.

"Stick around" Buffy quipped, as she delivered a kick to Faith's ribs.

* * *

Back at the library, Giles had enlisted Xander to help him go through his books in search of a clue to stopping the Mayor's Ascension.

"And you didn't find anything in that Wirth guy's notes?" asked Xander, not at all looking forward to going through more books.

"No, nothing" said Giles. "I can only assume the Mayor's forces had already gone through the professor's research."

"So, we got nothing. great." Xander hated to admit it but he found himself thinking about the offer Anya had made him to run away together. While he refused not wanting to abandon his friends, their lack of progress was making it tempting.

"I believe I found something" said Giles, pulling Xander from his thoughts "Prof. Wirth makes references to a legend of the villagers near the site of his last excavation. The Legend of Ollokai. Might be a bastardization of Olvikan."

"Who's Olvikan?"

"I know it's a demon, a very old one. Might have a picture."

Giles and Xander immediately went to work searching through the books for anything on their mysterious demon. Eventually the pair came across a depiction of the ancient demon and they finally understood just what Anya meant about pure demons being bigger.

"We're going to need a bigger boat" said Xander, and for once Giles found himself completely in agreement.

* * *

Back at Faith's apartment, Buffy pulled the dark-haired girl to her feet intending to drag her to Angel. Not about to go without a fight, Faith yanked on the handcuff chain, pulling Buffy in for a quick punch to the jaw.

With the image of a dying Angel flashing in her mind, Buffy grabbed Faith's wrist and forced her into an arm lock.

"What's the matter? All that killing and you afraid to die?" she mocked.

Breaking free of Buffy's hold, Faith stunned her with an elbow to the nose before using the handcuff chain as leverage to throw Buffy over her shoulder; the force of which snapped the chain as Buffy landed flat on her back.

Rolling away from each over, Buffy quickly arming herself with a piece of pipe, wielding it like a staff, while Faith drew her knife.

Buffy made the first move bringing the pipe down on Faith's head, only for the dark Slayer to dodge and counter with a swipe of her blade, forcing Buffy to drop the pipe as the knife cut into her arm.

Pressing her advantage, Faith grabbed Buffy's injured arm and threw her across the roof. Landing flat on her back, Buffy tried to get back up only for Faith to pounce on her, ready to plunge her knife into her heart.

"Man, I'm gonna miss this" Faith smirked.

Just as Faith moved to bring the dagger down, Buffy managed to roll herself out from under Faith, sending them both tumbling over. When Buffy climbed to her feet, she was surprised to find blood staining the front of her first, but her shock was nothing compared to Faith's, with her own knife now sticking out of her abdomen.

Buffy could only stare in shock as Faith started to laugh at the look of disbelief on the blonde's face.

"Well, you did it" she smiled weakly. "You killed me."

Taking advantage of Buffy's shellshock, Faith backhanded the blonde away before making her way over to the edge of the roof.

"Still won't help your boy, though. Should've been there, B, quite a ride."

Realizing what Faith was planning, Buffy scrambled to her feet. But it was too late as Faith let herself fall backwards off the roof, landing on the back of a moving truck below. Buffy can only watch as the best chance she had for saving Angel was carried away.

* * *

With no other options Buffy returned to Angel's mansion. She found the vampire lying in bed, covered in sweat, looking moments away from death.

"Buffy" Angel whispered, looking at her through unfocused eyes. "Is that you?"

"It's me" Buffy smiled gently, as she sat down at his bedside.

Angel tried to return the smile but it looked more like a grimace, "I didn't want to go, without seeing you."

Buffy put a finger on his lips signaling for him to stop talking. "Angel, I can cure you."

"It's ok…I'm ready."

"Angel listen to me." Buffy held Angel's shoulders. "Sit up." Though weak and in obvious pain, Angel managed scooch up a little. "You're going to live. You have to live."

"There's no way" Angel frowned.

Steadying her nerves, Buffy exposed her neck to him, "Drink…drink me."

Angel stared at her in shock before shaking his head, rejecting the idea. "No."

"It's the only way" Buffy pleaded.

But Angel held firm. "It'll kill you."

"Maybe not. Not if you don't take it all."

Angel stared down at the floor, "You can't ask me to do that."

Buffy took his face in her hands, but he refused to look her in the eyes "I won't let you die. I can't. Angel the blood of a Slayer is the only cure."

Angel finally met Buffy's gaze "Faith…"

Buffy swallows and answered quietly, "I tired…I killed her."

Angel shook his head and lurched away from Buffy: "Then it's over." Forcing himself out of bed, Angel stumbled out of the bedroom and into the center room, with Buffy following after him.

"It is never over! I won't let you die. Drink!" Buffy punched Angel, hitting him in his left temple, hi head snapping back from the impact. Acting on instinct Angel's human façade vanished revealing the demon underneath. Buffy pulled down the shoulder strap of her shirt, grabbed Angel by his hair, and pulled his head down. Buffy gasped in pain when she finally felt Angel bite into her neck. It soon grew too much for Buffy, as she fell backwards onto the floor with Angel on top of her unable or unwilling to separate from her.

Angel was lost to his long-suppressed instincts as the sound of Buffy's gasps and moans faded into background all he could focus on was the pleasure of once more enjoying drinking fresh blood.

Then suddenly the haze cleared from Angel's mind as he felt something wrap around his neck. With a jerking motion, Angel was pulled from on top of Buffy and left lying at Robbie's feet, with the Rider's chain wrapped tightly around his throat.

Even as he looked into Robbie's judgement filled eyes, Angel couldn't have felt more grateful as he realized what he'd done to Buffy. Feeling as if he deserved no less the vampire was prepared to accept his death at the hands of the Ghost Rider.

But to Angel's surprise, Robbie banished the chain around his neck and walked past the vampire in favor of checking on Buffy.

"She's not dead" Robbie told Angel, as he lifted Buffy off the floor.

Angel scrambled to his feet to follow Robbie outside but the look in the Rider's eye told him he wasn't welcome. It wasn't surprising, Angel was already far from innocent and now he had the blood of the woman he loved on his lips.

As he watched Robbie drive away with Buffy, Angel understood that the only reason the Spirit of Vengeance hadn't called for his destruction was that it judged death as being far too merciful for him. Better to go on tormented by the weight of his sins removed from the only source of real joy he'd found in his cursed existence.

"Buffy" Angel whispered sorrowfully, as he abandoned all doubt that he didn't belong by his lover's side. "Goodbye."


	8. 1-8

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

Robbie stood outside the emergency room, while the doctors inside worked to save Buffy's life. He'd just finished calling Giles, filling him in on what's happened when he felt the demon within him calling for vengeance. The cause of its anger was made clear as he spotted the Mayor being led by a doctor into a room down the hall.

With his own rage compounded with the Spirit's, Robbie gave into his urge for vengeance and followed after the Mayor. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike, Robbie stood outside the door and listened as the doctor spoke to the Mayor.

"The bones are set, and the damage to the kidneys is repairable. But the head trauma, it's…well it's simply too severe. It's a wonder she's alive at all, with the blood loss…I…I'm sorry Sir, there is almost no chance at all that she is ever going to regain consciousness."

Robbie stepped aside as the doctor left the room before slipping inside to find the Mayor standing over a badly bruised Faith, lovingly stroking her cheek. Now that he was alone with the Mayor, Robbie could feel the Spirit of Vengeance fighting to take control, urging him to give in and let the Ghost Rider pass his judgement.

 _Not yet_ , to Robbie's surprise and relief the Spirit backed down for the moment at the reminder that they still needed to learn Gabe's location first. But that didn't mean he was about to just let the Mayor walk out of there.

"Mr. Reyes" the Mayor growled, as he turned away from Faith.

"Where is Gabe?" Robbie demanded, matching the Mayor's own hate filled gaze.

"Oh, he's safe…for now. But I promise you, you and that little whore will pay for what you did to my Faith. You'll watch as I eat your brother's heart out."

And just like that Robbie's restraint broke as he felt the change begin, as hellfire started burning beneath his skin.

"Not yet, Mr. Reyes" the Mayor said coldly. "My men have orders to kill your brother should I fail to check in soon." The thought of his brother being torn apart by vampires was enough to force Robbie to hold back his transformation. "But don't worry the show's not over yet. This is just the intermission. Be sure not to miss the second act, Gabe is going to be a special guest."

"I'll be there" Robbie promised, and then there would be vengeance.

* * *

Once the Mayor was gone, Robbie went back out into the hall, taking a seat outside Buffy's hospital room just as Giles, Willow, and Xander arrived.

"How is she?" asked Giles.

"Doctors say she'll be ok" said Robbie. "She's just sleeping now."

"What happened?" asked Xander. Did Faith…"

Robbie shook his head, "No. Faith's out of the picture. Buffy put her into a coma."

"Oh my god" Willow gasped. "Is Angel dead?"

"No. Angel's fine" said Robbie. "Buffy cured him."

Shocked they all struggled to find the words as they looked to the sleeping Buffy, realizing what she'd done.

Xander scowled, "Well, it's just good to know that when the chips are down, Angel will feed off the girl who loves him to save his own ass! Couldn't even bother to be here."

Willow and Giles couldn't bring themselves to defend Angel as they too felt he should've been there. And Robbie had no interest in explaining how his last meeting with the vampire went.

"We can worry about Angel later" said Giles. "Let's go see how Buffy's doing.

* * *

While her friends watched over her, in her dreams Buffy found herself standing across from Faith in her apartment. Buffy could see cardboard boxes stacked everywhere and nearly jumped when a cat suddenly leapt onto Faith's bed.

Cut to Buffy walking through Faith's apartment her arms crossed in front of her. There are cardboard boxes stacked everywhere. Buffy stops and sees a cat jump up on Faith's bed.

"Who's going to look after him?" Buffy asked, as she petted the cat.

"It's a she" Faith corrected her, as she moved to stand beside Buffy. "And aren't these things supposed to take care of themselves?"

"A higher power guiding us?"

Faith gave Buffy a look and turned away to examine her still broken window "I'm pretty sure that's not what I meant. They're never going to fix this, are they?"

"Faith?" Buffy called.

Faith didn't respond instead she just kept staring out the broken window. Concerned Buffy called Faith's name again, this time getting her sister Slayer's attention.

"Sorry, it's my head" Faith shrugged, keeping her back to Buffy. "A lot of new stuff."

"There's something I'm supposed to be doing" said Buffy.

"Oh yeah. Miles to go - Little Ms. Muffet counting down from 7-3-0."

Buffy grimaced, "Great. Riddles."

Faith just shrugged, still refusing to look back at Buffy.

"What about you?" Buffy asked, concerned about what would happen to Faith.

Faith turned around and gestured at her head, "Scar tissue. It fades. It all fades."

Buffy gasped as a wall of fire suddenly erupted behind Faith, and the apartment began to shake.

"You know the deal, B" said Faith. "Every deal has its price." Buffy struggled to keep her balance as a large crack suddenly ran through the floor beneath her. "Got to be careful about who you deal with because someone always comes to collect."

"Is this your mind or mine?" Buffy asked with a half-smile.

Faith laughed, "Beats me." Buffy gave a little laugh in return as Faith walked up to her "Getting towards that time."

Before Buffy could ask what, she was talking about the floor beneath Faith's feet opened up, in a manner that reminded her of the Hellmouth. Buffy tried to reach out to Faith as chains rose up and started to drag her down.

Just before she disappeared beneath the floorboards, Buffy heard Faith say, "Human weakness – never goes away. Not even his."

* * *

Buffy's eyes fluttered open, as she quickly took in her surroundings. That she was in a hospital room was easy enough to figure out. As the haze cleared from her eyes, she smiled weakly as Xander, Willow, and Giles' faces came into focus.

"Buffy!" Willow, Giles, and Xander immediately started asking her how she was feeling.

Buffy gave them a small smile and assured them, she was alright. That was when she noticed someone was missing. "Is Angel here?"

Willow and Xander exchanged uncertain looks as they struggled to explain Angel's apparent abandonment.

"No, he couldn't be here Giles said gently. "The sun is out."

Buffy nodded, though she suspected he was actually hiding away out of guilt. "Get him, and find Robbie."

"What's up?" asked Xander.

"I'm ready" Buffy declared, as she climbed out of bed.

"Ready for what?" asked Willow.

"War."

* * *

Sneaking Buffy out of the hospital she and the Scoobies met up with Robbie at the school library. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Angel. That even Cordelia was there to offer her own support, only added to Buffy's disappoint over the vampire's absence. But now wasn't the time to focus on that. Pushing her hurt feelings aside, Buffy explained her plan for how to deal with the Mayor.

"So, am I crazy?" said Buffy, as she took in everyone's mixed looks.

"Well, 'crazy' is such a strong word" said Willow.

"Let's not rule it out though" said Giles.

"You don't think it can be done?" asked Buffy.

"I didn't say that. It's just that what you are proposing is incredibly risky."

"I personally don't think it's possible to come up with a crazier plan" said Cordelia. "But it's pretty much the only plan. Besides, it's Buffy's, - and she's slay gal, - you know, Ms. little Likes-to-fight. So…"

"I think there was a 'yea' vote buried in there somewhere" said Xander.

"Well, I'm going to need every single one of you on board" said Buffy. "Especially you Xander. You're sort of the key figure here."

Xander's eyes widened in shock "Key? Me?" he took a deep breath. "Ok pride, humility, and here is the mind-numbing fear. What do I have to do?"

"Do you remember any of your military training from when you became soldier guy?"

Buffy noticed Robbie giving Xander a skeptical look, obviously having trouble believing he'd ever had any military training. But she didn't have time to explain the story behind that one.

"Uh, rocket launcher?" Xander guessed.

"Rocket launcher not going to get it done" Buffy said regretfully. "We're going to need something bigger for this one."

"Um, Buffy, all of this is rather dependent on your being able to control the Mayor" said Giles.

"Faith told me to play on his human weakness.

"Faith told you?" Willow said in surprise. "Was that before or after you put her into a coma?"

"After."

"Oh." Willow looked to Xander for help but he was still focused on the feeling of being the Key.

"So, what's his weakness?" asked Robbie.

Buffy knitted her brow, "You know I do all this planning. I'm in charge here, even though I am really not at my best…"

Robbie scowled not appreciating the joke about such critical information.

"Well, let's… let's…ah, let's think" Giles spoke up, not wanting to risk an argument between their two biggest powerhouses.

The group paused as they thought about what they knew about the Mayor.

"Faith" said Robbie.

Buffy glanced over at him and asked, "Faith?"

"I saw him at the hospital, he was grieving. Faith's his weakness."

Buffy narrowed her eyes, "Faith. I can work with that."

* * *

While Buffy and the others prepared for the graduation; across town the Mayor was making preparations of his own, speaking to his assembled vampire minions.

"The transformation should begin at exactly 3:28. I'll just be finishing my speech - you know, it's too bad you fellows have to miss that, because I think it speaks to every one of us. I mean, heck, I've been working on it for a hundred years. It better be good" the Mayor laughed. "They'll try to run, of course, and this is when I'll need you boys in flanking position."

"But Sir, the sun!" one of the vampire's spoke up.

"Not a problem" the Mayor grinned. "An eclipse is scheduled for this afternoon. You come up through the sewers here. The important thing is containment. I'll need to feed. Their souls are crucial for the contract's completion. That means no snacking. I see blood on your lips, it's a visit to the wood shed for you boys. Kill. Don't feed."

* * *

At last it was the day of the Ascension. With only hours before the ceremony, Cordelia was tasked with directing students to the tables that were secretly loaded with various weapons before sending them to Xander who outlined their basic plan of attack.

With everything at the school under control Buffy went to Angel's place, needing one last thing before she was ready to face the Mayor. Upon arrival, she found no sign of the vampire. As she searched the old mansion, Buffy noted a few things seemed to be missing. Eventually she found what she'd come for, Faith's still blood-stained knife.

"Angel" Buffy whispered sadly. Buffy shook her head, pushing aside those thoughts for later as she steeled herself for the battle ahead.

* * *

Dressed in her cap and gown, Buffy returned to the school arriving just as the students finished assembling in the football stadium. In front of the students Principal Snyder stood at the podium.

"Congratulations to the class of 1999. You all proved more or less adequate. This is a time of celebration, so: sit still and be quiet. Please welcome our distinguished guest speaker: Richard Wilkins the 3rd."

Snyder turned to the Mayor with a sycophantic smile and clapped. The Mayor stepped forward and shook Snyder's hand, while one of assistants wheeled a quiet and clearly frightened Gabe onto the stage.

Stepping up to the podium, the Mayor cleared his throat as he surveyed the crowd of students.

"I hope none of you mind that I brought my little friend, Gabe with me today. You see recently, I promised his brother that I'd keep an eye on him today. And what a day this is! - Special day. Today is our centennial the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Sunnydale, and I know what that means to all you kids: not - a darn thing. Because today something much more important happens: today you all graduate from high school. Today all the pain, all the work, all the excitement is finally over. And what's a hundred years of history compared to that? You know what kids? …"

Buffy groaned from her seat "Oh my God. He's going to do the entire speech."

"Man, just ascend already" Willow complained, sharing Buffy's opinion of the unnecessarily long speech.

"… for all of you it may be that there is a place in Sunnydale's history, whether you like it or not. It's been a long road getting here. For you… for Sunnydale. There has been achievement, joy, good times, and there has been grief. There's been loss. Some people who should be here today… aren't. But here we are. - Journey's end. And what is a journey? Is it just… distance traveled? Time spent? No. It's what happens on the way, it the things that happen to you. At the end of the journey you're not the same. Today is about change. Graduation doesn't just mean your circumstances change, it means you do. You ascend… to a higher level. Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing." A shadow fell on the Mayor's face, prompting him and everyone else to look up to the beginning of the eclipse. As eclipse neared completion, the Mayor flinched in pain, before continuing his speech, "And so as we look back on…"

Suddenly the Mayor steadied himself on the podium and let out an agonizing scream. "It has begun. My destiny" he smiled. "It's a little sooner than I expected I had this whole section on civic pride. But I guess we'll just skip to the big finish!"

Buffy and Willow traded looks as the Mayor starts to grimace and stretch and grow. Before their eyes the Mayor transformed into a giant snake-like demon with glowing red eyes, and clawed mandibles surrounding its mouth. While the faculty abandoned their seats in terror, the students climbed to their feet staring up at the Mayor, who now towered over the school.

"Now!" Buffy commanded, as a group of vampires came charging up the steps behind the students. At once all the students threw off their caps and gowns revealing crosses, axes, and other assorted weaponry. "Flame units!"

Several of the students armed with flame throwers fired at the Mayor. With the Mayor distracted, Buffy nodded at Xander.

Xander nodded in return a shouted, "First wave!" a group of students including Willow, armed with crossbows stepped forward and took aim. "Fire!"

The Mayor screamed as the crossbow bolts pierced his skin. Enraged over the ruined ceremony, Principal Snyder stupidly marched up to the transformed Mayor and yelled, "This… this is simply unacceptable!"

In response, the Mayor lunged down and swallowed Snyder whole. Buffy and several other students stared in shock at the sudden demise of the hated principal. Remembering that Gabe was also on the stage the Slayer searched for any sign of the boy and let out a sigh of relief when she spotted him being wheeled away by Wesley of all people.

 _Not bad Wes,_ Buffy smirked, feeling oddly proud of the Watcher.

With more vampires arriving Buffy knew it was time to begin the next phase of the plan. Jumping on top of a table, Buffy waved her arms getting the Mayor's attention

"Hey! You remember this?" Buffy held up Faith's knife. "I took it from Faith. Stuck it in her gut. Just slid in her like butter." The Mayor gnashed his teeth and growled. "You want to get it back from me, Dick?"

Jumping off the table Buffy turned and ran into the school with the Mayor following in hot pursuit. The Mayor's snake-like body tore through the halls, smashing lockers and trophy cases as he slithered through the school, snapping at Buffy's heels.

Running into the library, Buffy vaulted a banister looking back at the Mayor who came barreling through the door and the surrounding wall. The Mayor immediately noticed the barrels of diesel fuel and bags of fertilizer stacked everywhere.

"Well, gosh."

* * *

Jumping out of a window, Buffy landed in the back of the school and ran over to where Giles and Gabe were waiting, with the former's hands on the plunger. Once Buffy was clear, Giles pressed the plunger down triggering the explosives. As debris rained down upon them, Buffy tackled Gabe to the ground, using her body to shield him as the entire school was blown to smithereens.

Once the explosions stopped, Buffy cautiously got to her feet while Giles having done the same helped Gabe back into his wheelchair.

"Where's Robbie?" Gabe asked, looking around for any sign of his brother.

"I'm about to go find him" said Buffy.

With Giles agreeing to look after Gabe, Buffy ran off to witness the final part of their plan.

* * *

After getting caught in the explosion the Mayor found himself in the ruined remains of a sunken church buried deep underground, with the hole he fell through sealed over by debris from the high school. Just as the Mayor prepared to break through the ruble and continue his battle with Buffy, his body was suddenly wracked with pain.

The Mayor screamed as his snake-body began to retract, shrinking, bending, and twisting. When the pain subsided, the Mayor found himself returned to his human form while maintaining a few demonic traits; the mandibles and red eyes.

 _My Ascension, Its weakening. I need to feed,_ the Mayor realized, when suddenly the sound of footsteps caught his attention. Turning around he watched as Robbie walked out into the open.

"Mr. Reyes" the Mayor spoke, his voice distorted by his demonic transformation. "I was wondering where you were lurking."

"Had to swing by your office first," the Mayor's eyes widened in horror as Robbie held up the Box of Gavrok. Opening it, Robbie removed the scroll of parchment, the Mayor recognized as his contract with Mephisto. "You threatened my brother and planned to surrender the souls of everyone living in Sunnydale."

The Mayor could only watch, horrified as the contract went up in flames. Knowing what came next, the Mayor tried to run for the exit hoping to find some way back to the surface. He didn't get far before he was pulled back by Robbie's hellfire chain.

"Now it's time to pay for your sins." With a roar, Robbie's flesh burned away transforming him into the Ghost Rider.

With no protection against the Rider and fearful of the consequences of the destruction of his contract, the Mayor struggled against the Ghost Rider's pull, using all of the remaining strength of his Ascension.

It took all his effort but the Mayor could feel himself gaining ground, slowly making his way to the exit with the Ghost Rider's efforts dragging him down.

At Ghost Rider's command flaming chains broke through the walls and floor. The Mayor screamed as the chains pierced his flesh.

"No!" the Mayor screamed, as the Ghost Rider's chains tightened around him. "You're not dragging me down! You're not dragging me down – you bastard!"

But despite his struggles the Ghost Rider's grasp held firm, dragging him closer as the ground beneath them began to shake.

Buffy arrived just as a large fissure formed beneath the Mayor and Ghost Rider's feet. Buffy froze as the scene reminded her of the dream she had of faith.

"Robbie!" Buffy cried, as she had a feeling what came next.

For a moment, the Ghost Rider turned his focus to Buffy and the Slayer was sure that it was Robbie in control. But instead of trying to escape, to Buffy's surprise Ghost Rider held his ground and commanded his chains to draw the Mayor in.

"No. No. NO!" the Mayor screamed, as Ghost Rider forced him to look into his eyes.

Buffy watched helplessly as the crack in the Hellmouth opened up beneath the Mayor and Ghost Rider's feet, sending them falling down below, sealing itself up behind them – trapping both the Mayor and Robbie inside.

Buffy just stood there staring in disbelief where the Ghost Rider had been standing just moments ago, struggling to process that Robbie was gone.

* * *

Returning to the street Buffy found her friends waiting for her by Robbie's abandoned car. Giles was the first to notice the pain in Buffy's eyes.

"Buffy, what's wrong?" he asked. "Where's Robbie?"

Buffy sadly shook her head and explained that Robbie hadn't made it. Giles, Willow, and Xander all expressed their shock and disbelief as they struggled to understand why Robbie would allow himself to be thrown into the Hellmouth.

"We'll have to get the car to Gabe" said Buffy. "It belongs to him now."

"Is it wrong that I kind of want to keep it for myself?" Xander joked, which was not appreciated.

"Xander's inappropriate humor aside" Giles sighed. "I do not believe we should count out the previous owner just yet. There are stories of previous Ghost Riders returning from hell dimensions."

"Then maybe Robbie will make it back" said Willow.

"Yes. I suspect this is not the last we'll see of Robbie Reyes."

"Then, I'll help look after Gabe until he's back" said Buffy. "I'm sure mom won't mind letting him stay with her."

"Then we best go collect him" said Giles. "I left him in Wesley's care."

As they began the journey home, Buffy stopped short having sensed someone watching them. Turning around she caught a brief glimpse of Angel, watching her with a heart broken expression on his face, before he turned away and vanished into the night.

"Buffy?" the Slayer turned to see Willow standing there with a look of concern on her face. "You ok?"

Buffy gave a small smile, "Yeah…I'm ok. I could use a little sleep though. Wake me up when it's time for college."

Willow nodded, "Yeah." Wrapping her arm around Buffy's shoulder, the two friends followed after Giles and Xander. Their future was looking bright.

* * *

Sitting on a throne of bones, Mephisto watched Buffy and her friends through a pool of blood. Banishing the image, the demon leaned back in his throne, tapping his finger on the armrest.

"Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. Seems your successor's every bit the pain in the ass you were." With a gesture, Richard Wilkins appeared below Mephisto's throne, wrapped in chains. "Now, as for you. I granted you the Ascension and yet you failed to keep up your end of the bargain, Mr. Wilkins. I think it's time you learned why you don't break a deal with me."

Banishing the former Mayor of Sunnydale, Mephisto began to plan out his next scheme, as the tortured screams of Richard Wilkins joined those of the other damned souls within his kingdom.


	9. 2-1

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

Two months ago, in a monastery in the Czech Republic, two monks raced down a long stretch of hallway. A look of absolute terror marred their faces. In their hands, they clutched religious items: books, candles, incense. Without slowing they barged their way through a set of massive wooden doors, slamming them shut behind them, and locking them with a large beam the size of a tree trunk.

"It's coming. It's going to kill us!" one of the monks told the other.

"Our lives aren't important. We have to protect the Key."

They raced to the center of the great room, where a third monk, a senior member of their order was waiting. Taking a moment to kneel before the Senior Monk, the two lower ranking monks hurriedly lit their candles and placed them in a circle around the perimeter of the room.

"Hurry, we must perform the ritual" said the Senior Monk.

Joining their senior, the three monks extended their arms and began chanting. In response to their ancient words of power an unnatural wind filled the chamber, growing in power as the monks' chanting grew louder and faster. As the hum of mystical energy gradually began to build, a tremendous crash suddenly echoed through the monastery and the massive wooden door trembled in its frame.

"Concentrate" the Senior Monk admonished his juniors as they glanced fearfully at the door. "Concentrate."

As the ritual continued so too did the relentless pounding at the door. The beam holding the door started to splinter but still the monks endured focusing entirely on completing their task. Suddenly a bright pillar of light emerged from the center of the monks' center just as the door gave way shattering into pieces.

* * *

In the present Buffy Summers was in the Sunnydale factory district, fighting with a vampire. Though this particular vamp was proving to be somewhat of a challenge as the monster threw her up against a chain link fence. Getting her bearings, Buffy ducked just as the vampire's fist smashed into where her head had been only a second before.

The vampire in question had a burley build and was wearing a Hell's Angel's biker jacket.

"I've always wanted to kill the Slayer" the Biker Vampire sneered, as he loomed menacingly over Buffy.

"And I've always wanted piano lessons. So really, who's surprised we have all this unexpressed rage?" Buffy quipped, punctuating her words with a series of savage blows knocking the vampire back several feet.

Shaking it off the Biker Vampire retaliated with a brutal punch to her face, sending Buffy reeling. Blocking the second blow, Buffy grabbed the vampire's arm wrenched it behind his back, using the hold as leverage to press the vamp up against the fence.

"But honestly? I think I'm expressing mine better. Tell you what…you find yourself a good anger management class…" the vampire tried to throw Buffy off him, but the Slayer held firm and whipped out a stake. "And I'll jam this pokey wood stick through your heart."

Before the vampire could react, Buffy drove the stake into his heart, and watches as the vampire turns to dust before slipping the stake back into her coat.

 _I think that sets the land speed record for closure._ With the vampire beaten, Buffy was ready to take her leave when suddenly a bright line shined in her face.

"Miss, if you're looking for one of those rave parties, I'm afraid you're late" said the Night Watchman, moving his flashlight out of Buffy's eyes. "Chased a bunch of kids out of here last night."

Knowing better than to look a gift horse in the mouth, Buffy went along with the story, saying how disappointed she was to miss out on a good rave. The watchman was more than happy to let Buffy go on her way but before she could leave, he called her back saying she'd dropped something. To Buffy's surprise the watchman handed her a glowing yellow orb of some kind.

"Glow balls, huh?" the Watchman laughed. "I swear, I don't get your generation. What is that thing anyway?"

"I'll let you know as soon as I find out" Buffy said distractedly.

* * *

The next morning Buffy was in the kitchen of the Summers family home putting together a breakfast tray. She'd just finished plating some homemade French toast, when Gabe Reyes wheeled into the kitchen. The youngest Reyes brother had been staying with the Summers family for nearly two years now – ever since Robbie had been swallowed by the Hellmouth.

"Hey Gabe." Buffy greeted, as she started cleaning up.

Gabe simply nodded and made his way over to the fridge for a glass of orange juice. Buffy wasn't surprised while Gabe was never openly hostile towards her, it's been obvious that he blamed her for Robbie's disappearance. And she accepted that blame as it was her plan to use Robbie to finish off the Mayor.

"Dawn, touch nothing" Buffy said immediately, as her younger sister walked into the room.

"Who died and made you the Iron Chef?" said Dawn, finding it strange that Buffy was cooking.

"Look, Mom's sick and I made her a nice non-instant breakfast for once and I don't need you…"

Having grown board with her sister's tirade, Dawn decided to check out the tray Buffy had put together for their mother, specifically the small rose vase she'd set for decoration. Examining the floors, Dawn accidently knocked over the vase. Luckily, Gabe managed to catch it before it could break.

"…do that" Buffy sighed, as she took the vase from Gabe. "Thanks, Gabe."

Gabe just shrugged as if saying "whatever" and about finishing his juice, just as a smiling Joyce Summers walked into the kitchen, immediately noticing the breakfast platter.

"Oh! Check out the 'Pamper Mom' platter" she smiled. "Did you do all this for me?"

"I can't take any credit, Mrs. Summers" said Gabe.

"Buffy, helped though" Dawn spoke up, ignoring the look of disbelief on her sister's face. While Gabe had to hide the amused smirk on his face at the audacity of the younger Summers sister.

"I-I didn't 'help'…" said Buffy.

"I'm sure you did" said Joyce, as she took sat down, completely misunderstanding her eldest. "So, neither of you is pregnant, failing or under indictment?" Buffy and Dawn gave their mother a look, "Just checking."

"How're you feeling, Mrs. Summers?" Gabe asked. "Still having headaches?"

"Afraid so. And I think they brought some friends along."

"Well, what did the doctor say?" asked Buffy.

"Oh, take four of some-pills a day and come back for tests" Joyce dismissed.

"So, they don't know what's wrong?"

"Not yet."

"Well, that's unacceptable. I think we should get a second opinion."

Joyce gave Buffy an amused look, "Well, we need a first opinion first, honey."

"Ok, we'll go right now."

"Buffy, I know you're concerned, but don't be. I'm still the mom. And you've got to get going. It's Giles' big day, isn't it?"

"Bigger than big" said Buffy, pacified for the moment. "It's his grand opening."

"So, go Bring me back a…I don't know…a flying broomstick or something."

"Those never really work" Dawn chimed in.

"Whatever" Joyce dismissed playfully. "Book club tonight?"

"Uh-huh," Dawn nodded.

"You guys have a book club?" Buffy asked, this being the first she's heard of it.

"Yeah, they have them like twice a week" said Gabe.

Buffy frowned, thinking she should've known that, "Ok. Well, I'm gonna go. I'll be back later. What time is your doctor's appointment?" she asked her mother, but quickly changed her mind at the exasperated look on Joyce's face. "Never mind. Just you know…take it easy. Relax all day, keep your feet up, plenty of Oprah."

* * *

Stepping into Giles' new shop the Magic Box, Buffy took a moment to examine the various curious and knickknacks lining the shelves. Though she was worried to see the shop was currently empty, Buffy's concerns were pushed aside once her gaze fell upon Giles, who was standing serenely in the center of the store wearing a spangled purple robe and pointed wizard hat.

For a moment, they stared at each other before Giles finally got the message and shrugged off the costume, tossing it behind the checkout counter just as Dawn came bursting through the door, gasping for breath.

"What're you doing here?" Buffy demanded.

Ignoring her sister, Dawn instead took in the shop, in awe of the display. "Who…Mr. Giles, this place is so…wow. I mean, check out all the magic junk."

"Our new slogan" Giles said dryly.

"So, when's it open? You know, for customers?" Dawn asked, missing the drop in Giles' smile.

"Since nine this morning, actually."

"Dawn. Go. Browse" Buffy commanded, not wanting her sister to put her foot in her mouth any further. "And…"

"'You break it, you bought it.' Heard you the first sixty times."

Dawn wandered towards the back of the store, leaving Giles and Buffy alone. Seeing the worry on her face, Giles assured Buffy, he'd be fine certain that the usual Sunnydale supernatural chaos would bring in the customers. But it wasn't just Giles' shop that had Buffy worried.

"Buffy, what is it?"

"It's just my mom's still stick and we have no idea what the deal is."

"Is she getting medical attention?" Giles asked, concerned for the Summers matriarch.

"Yeah. We have a cracked squad of medical specialists working round the clock to tell us diddly."

Giles placed a comforting hand on Buffy's shoulder, "I'm sorry. Just try to be patient. I'm sure…"

Giles was interrupted by the arrival of Willow and Buffy's boyfriend, Riley.

"Giles! Where's your hat and cloak?" Willow asked excitedly.

"Yeah, the hype was out of control" said Riley.

Having heard Willow's voice, Dawn came rushing to the front of the store, wanting to show the older girl the numerous talismans Giles had for sale.

"Actually, I have a little Scooby-centric deal to deal with first" Buffy interjected, reaching into her purse, she pulled out the glowing orb from the night before. "I put this before the group: what the hell is it?"

"It appears to be mystical in origin" Giles commented.

"How can you tell?" asked Willow.

"Well, it's so shiny."

"Found it on patrol" said Buffy, handing the orb to Giles.

"There may be more where that came from" said Riley. "We should go out again tonight."

Buffy wasn't so sure of that. Unsure how to voice her concerns about taking Riley out on patrol, it came as a welcome distraction when her phone started to ring. That relief quickly turned to dread when she heard Gabe's panicked voice on the other end, saying something was wrong with Joyce.

"Something's wrong with my mom…"

"Don't worry about it, just go" said Riley told Buffy, pretending not to notice her earlier hesitation. "We'll handle things here."

Giving Riley a grateful smile, Buffy grabbed Dawn and rushed out of the store.

* * *

When they arrived home, Buffy and Dawn found Joyce lying on the couch in obvious distress, with Gabe doing his best to keep her comfortable.

"Gabe, you didn't need to call them" said Joyce, despite the pounding agony in her head.

"What happened?" Buffy asked Gabe, ignoring her mother's attempts to dismiss her pain.

"She just started having really bad headaches" Gabe explained, as he handed Buffy a slip of paper. "She needs her prescription. The hospital pharmacy should be open."

"Ok, I'll be back in ten minutes."

* * *

Picking up her mother's pills, Buffy was making her way out of the hospital. She'd just passed a couple of orderlies wheeling in a patient, when she heard someone call her name. Turning around she saw it was a dark-haired man dressed in hospital scrubs. Buffy looked at him expectantly, getting an embarrassed chuckle from the man as he realized he'd yet to introduce himself.

"Sorry. I'm Ben…but you can call me man-nurse. Everybody else here does."

Suddenly the patient in a gurney behind Ben sat up. Buffy was shocked to see it was the same night watchman she'd met the night before.

"I don't belong here" he rambled madly. "I have important instructions. Fascists!"

Ben immediately rushed to help hold the watchman down. But the watchman was putting up a good fight, it was beginning to look like they were going to need to sedate him, until Buffy walked over and with her Slayer strength slammed the watchman down onto the gurney with one hand and effortlessly held him there.

"Wow" Ben awed, while the orderlies took the opportunity to tighten the gurney's restraints. "Not to sound sexist in the workplace, but you've got some serious muscle for a girl."

"I…um…" Buffy struggled to think of a convincing explanation.

"Radioactive spider bite" Ben joked.

Buffy smiled, appreciating that he wasn't pushing the issue. "How'd you guess?"

"I'm a doctor – well, almost."

Still flat on the gurney, the night watchman seized Buffy's arm, getting the Slayer's attention.

"Doesn't even help. Doesn't make a damn bit of difference!" he ragged, referring to the bottle of pills in the Slayer's hand.

"I've met this guy" Buffy told Ben. "He's a security guard. He's not crazy."

"If you say so…"

"They're coming at you!" the watchman continued. "Don't think you're above it, missy. They come through the family! They get to your family!"

"My family?" Buffy repeated, so focused on the man's words, she failed to notice she'd dropped the medicine bottle. "What do you mean?"

But before the watchman could say anything else the orderlies wheeled him away.

"I'm really sorry about that" said Ben, picking up the dropped medicine bottle. "For your mom?"

"Yeah, thanks" Buffy said absently, taking the bottle from Ben.

"She's not feeling better?"

"Not yet but she will be" Buffy said with certainty. "I'm starting to figure out what's wrong."

* * *

Unbeknownst to Buffy, there is a new arrival to Sunnydale. One of the monks from the monastery in the Czech Republic had managed to escape. Taking shelter inside the same factory, outside which Buffy found the glowing orb, the monk was hard at work marking locations on a map of Sunnydale.

Suddenly a deep boom reverberated through the factory, prompting the monk to look fearfully towards the tempered steel door, shuddering as it's struck by some titanic force from outside.

"The Beast!" the monk cried, as the steel buckled and was sent flying across the room, taking a good portion of the surrounding wall with it.

When the dust settled, an attractive blond woman in a form-fitting red dress was standing incongruously amid the rubble. A manic smile on her face as she stepped into the room, her gaze looked on the monk cringing in fear before her.

"There you are. I've been looking all over for you."

* * *

Returning to the Magic Box, Buffy found the situation at the store had done a complete 180. The place was packed with customers, so many in fact he was forced to enlist the help of Willow and the ex-demon, Anya. While she didn't like bothering Giles while he was clearly busy, Buffy knew this couldn't wait.

"Giles, I think I know what's making my mom sick."

"Have you spoken with her doctors?" Giles asked, noting how flustered Buffy looked.

"They won't find anything" said Buffy, picking the orb up off the front counter. "What's hurting her – it's supernatural. The night watchman who found this thing; he went crazy – like overnight."

Willow, Giles, and Anya immediately backed away cautiously.

"It won't hurt us" Buffy assured them. "I had it on me all night. But this guy, he saw things…he said things."

"Such as?" Giles asked.

"'They'll come at me through my family'."

"Who will?"

"I don't know…yet. But whatever touched this guy, it made him see through what the rest of us are seeing. He knew someone's hurting my mom and they're trying to get to me."

"It's possible" Giles said cautiously. "But still…the ramblings of a madman aren't much to go on."

"Yeah, but it's a start. We need to find out who's making my mom sick and how."

"Then what?" Willow asked.

"Then I hunt them…find them…and kill them" Buffy said coldly. So coldly in fact that her friends couldn't help but be reminded of another warrior they knew, one driven entirely by vengeance.

"Well, there's a spell that might help you" said Anya, getting the group's attention. "Back in the 16th there was this French sorcerer 1-don't-know-what named…"

"Cloutier?" Giles suggested.

"So, cute in his little knickers" Anya said fondly. "But he had this one spell that demons just hated: tirer la couture."

"'Rotate many foodstuffs'?" said Buffy confused.

"'Pull the curtain back'" Willow corrected.

"A spell to see spells" Anya explained. "Well, a trance to see spells, actually, but you get the idea. Try that."

"What do you mean 'see' spells?" Buffy asked.

"Well, all spells leave a trace signature" Giles explained. "It's just not perceptible to the human eye. In this case, it could be the image of a hand choking your mother."

"Or a cloud of mist around her" Anya suggested.

"Or maybe the shape of the demon that's performing the spell?" Willow added.

"Ok, so I'll do what Monsieur Silk Knickers did" Buffy decided. "I'll go home, I'll get my trance on and I'll see what's affecting my mom."

"I don't know, Buffy" Willow said uncertainly. "Traces?"

"Yes, Buffy, Cloutier was legendary" said Giles. "His skills at achieving higher states of consciousness were…"

"Better than mine" Buffy interrupted. "I get it. But I've been practicing concentration skills. I know I'm close."

"Are you ready?"

"It's my mom. I'll get ready."

* * *

Returning home, Buffy got to work performing the ritual. With Dawn, thankfully most likely busy hanging with Gabe somewhere, it left Buffy free of distractions. Lighting some incense, Buffy sat cross-legged in the center of a circle of red sand, closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.

The sun had already set when Buffy finally felt herself slip into her trance, with her connection to the physical world slipping into the background allowing her to see things beyond the normal human spectrum.

Leaving her room, Buffy made her way down to the living room the once familiar house suddenly appearing strange and new.

"Buffy?" Joyce called, her voice sounding far away due to the effects of the trance.

The Slayer turned to find her mother standing by the door putting on her overcoat.

"Mom? Are you going out?" Buffy asked, as she studied her mother, looking for any trace of a spell. _Nothing's there._

Buffy's attention is suddenly drawn to family photo hanging on the wall behind Joyce. The picture once showing the three Summers women was changing, with Dawn's image flickering in and out like bad television reception.

"Are you feeling alright?" Joyce asked, concerned by her daughter's strange behavior. "Buffy?"

Muffled by the effects of the trance it took a moment for Buffy to register her mother's words. "I'm fine. Go. Have fun."

Joyce smiled wistfully, "You're so grown up."

The instant her mother stepped outside, Buffy immediately raced to find another family photo only to find the same thing: Dawn fading in and out. With Dawn, still hanging with Gabe, Buffy knew she couldn't risk a confrontation. Grabbing the nearest phone, she dialed the Magic Box.

" _Buffy, I was just about to call you"_ said Giles. _"We've uncovered more than we expected about this orb. It's called the Dagon Sphere and it has a history going back many centuries."_

"What does it do?" Buffy asked, thinking maybe the orb and whatever was happening with Dawn were linked.

" _It's a protective device, used to ward off ancient primordial evil."_

"Any word on what this evil looks like?"

" _Unfortunately, no. This is where accounts get vague. All we've managed to uncover so far is the Dagon Sphere was created to repel That Which Cannot Be Named."_

"I'll head back to the factory where I found it" Buffy decided. "Whoever planted this doohickey's got answers."

" _Buffy, you've heard me say this before but do be careful. Anything that goes unnamed is usually an object of deep worship or great fear maybe both. Have you completed the trance? Seen what's harming your mother?"_

"That's the thing…I just saw…" Buffy trailed off, as she sensed someone standing behind her.

" _Yes?"_

"Nothing. It didn't work."

Hanging up the phone, Buffy turned to see Dawn standing there with Gabe at her side.

"What was that about?" Dawn asked.

"Slayer stuff" Buffy replied. "I'm going out."

Having made it clear he wanted as little as possible to do with the supernatural world, Gabe left the room leaving the Summers sisters alone.

Feeling there was nothing left to be said, Buffy turned towards the door.

"You really think I care that you're the Slayer?" said Dawn.

Buffy turned back to Dawn, "What's that supposed to mean?" Dawn gave her a cold look. "I'll be back in an hour."

"Mom's coming back."

"I'll be back first." Buffy grabbed her jacket and left.

* * *

Returning to where she first came across the night watchman, Buffy found the shattered remains of the steel door. Heading inside, Buffy found the monk, bound to a chair and badly injured. Rushing to the man's side, Buffy got to work loosening the monk's restraints.

"It was you who planted the Dagon Sphere, right? I got it don't worry. I'm stronger than I look. I've had experience with stuff like this before. Best of all…" Buffy turned and seized the blonde woman by the throat, foiling her attempt to sneak up on her. "I'm not stupid."

The woman gave Buffy a withering look, as she wrenched her arm from her neck and backhanded the Slayer, sending her flying across the room, crashing into a cement wall. Dazed from the impact, Buffy looked up at the woman, stunned by her power.

"You sure about that last part" the woman smirked, as she approached the downed Buffy. Seizing her by the shoulders the woman dragged Buffy to her feet. "And another thing. I just want you to know…" she slams Buffy into a support beam and starts pummeling her "The whole 'beat ya to death' thing I'm doing? It's valuable time out of life I'm never going to get back."

Buffy tried to fight back but when she brought her arms up, the woman simply grabbed them and wrenched them down. Buffy screamed in agony as it felt like the woman nearly tore her arms off.

In a desperate move to escape the mad woman's grasp, Buffy slammed her face into her face, freeing herself as the woman stumbled back in shock.

"You hit me!" she outraged. "What're you crazy?!"

Pressing her attack, Buffy came at the woman with a relentless assault of punches and kicks. But despite all her strength, Buffy's attacks seemed more to offend the woman than injure her.

"You can't go around hitting people" Buffy delivers a kick to the woman's gut forcing her back a few inches. "What, were a you born in a barn?" Buffy lands a right cross to her jaw. "Fine. Be that way."

Easily blocking Buffy's next blow, the woman swings her around and slams her into a wall. Shaking it off, Buffy ducks just in time to evade the woman's follow up attack, leaving her fist punch straight through the concreate.

Seeing she was outmatched, Buffy tried to get away only for the woman to grab and lift her up by the throat, holding her there gasping for breath.

With the life, slowly being choked out of her, Buffy feared this was really the end for her when suddenly the roar of an engine rang out, followed by the appearance of a black 69 Charger surrounded in hellfire ghosting through the wall before coming to rest in the middle of the room.

Curious about the new arrival, the woman tossed Buffy aside leaving her to land in a broken heap by the feet of the captive monk. Struggling to catch her breath, Buffy watched in disbelief as none other than Robbie Reyes stepped out of the car.

"Neat trick with the car" the woman grinned manically. "Don't suppose you're here to tell me where the Key is?"

"I'm here for you" Robbie said coldly.

While the woman was distracted with Robbie, Buffy took the opportunity to attend to the monk, seeing he was just barely hanging on. Mindful of his injuries, Buffy helped the monk out of the chair, an action that didn't escape the mad woman's notice as she turned her attention back on Buffy.

"Hey! Hands off my holy man!" the woman moved to go after Buffy only to be pulled back as Robbie's hellfire chain wrapped around her middle. "Hey! Do you have any idea what hellfire does to silk?!"

Paying the flames, no mind, the woman grabbed the chain and with an impressive show of strength pulled Robbie off his feet towards her. Cocking her fist, the woman planned on knocking Robbie's head clean off his shoulders, only for her eyes to widen in surprise as his flesh burned away transforming him into the Ghost Rider.

Stunned by the transformation, the woman left herself wide open as Ghost Rider delivered a devastating left hook that sent her flying across the room crashing into a concrete wall, hitting hard enough to leave a sizable crack.

Buffy couldn't believe it. The return of Robbie Reyes aside it was humbling and frightening to see just how powerful the Ghost Rider truly was to be able to do that when her full strength could barely knock the mad woman back a few inches.

Wiping the blood off her lip the woman picked herself and glared hatefully at the Ghost Rider, "So, it's you Zarathos. Figures you'd show up to bug me. Is this about slaughtering those monks?"

Speaking of monks, Buffy couldn't help but notice the one currently leaning on her wasn't in good shape. He needed medical attention fast.

"Robbie!" she called, getting the Rider's attention. "Forget the vengeance. This guy's fading fast!"

For a moment Buffy feared the Ghost Rider would choose to finish the fight over saving the monk's life. Her fears were proven wrong when the Rider mentally commanded the back door of his Hell Charger to open, allowing Buffy to maneuver herself and the monk into the backseat.

"Hey! I said hands off my holy man!" the mad woman protested.

Realizing what they were about to do the woman charged towards them only for the Ghost Rider to send a mental command to the Hell Charger, causing to drive forward. Passing harmlessly through its master, the Ghost Rider phased into the driver's seat slammed his foot on the gas, running the woman over before ghosting through the woman behind her and driving out of the factory.

But not even being run over by the Hell Charger was enough to stop the woman-in-red. Picking herself up, the woman moved to follow after them only to stumble as the heel of her shoe breaks off. Glowering in frustration the woman tossed the broken shoe aside and in a fit of rage stomped her feet with such force the floor beneath her cracks.

Suddenly the building around her begins to tremble as the woman realizes she'd also accidentally shattered the support beams.

"Oh, shit" she cursed, just as the entire building comes crashing down around her.

* * *

Having returned to human form, Robbie watched from the driver's seat as Buffy did her best to keep the monk alive.

"Stop…please" the monk struggled to speak.

"Just hold on, we'll be at the hospital soon" Buffy told him.

The monk shook his head, "My journey's done, I think." Buffy protested saying that they'd be able to get him some medical attention. But the monk wasn't listening, his focus now on Robbie. "Ghost Rider…I beg you…help her protect the Key."

"What key?" Buffy and Robbie asked.

The monk's eyes settled back on Buffy, "the Key is energy. It's a portal. It opens the door…"

"The Dagon Sphere?" Buffy asked.

"No. For centuries it had no form at all. My brethren, it's only keepers. Then the abomination found us. We had to hide the Key, gave it form, molded it flesh…made it human and sent it to you."

Buffy stared at him in shock as the realization sunk in, "Dawn…you put that in my house?"

"We knew the Slayer would protect it" the monk confirmed.

Robbie wasn't sure what the hell they were talking about but decided to keep his question for later, instead focusing on getting them to the hospital.

"My memories…my mom's?" Buffy demanded.

"We built them" the monk confessed.

"Then un-build them!" Buffy snapped. "This is my life you're…" Buffy's rage quieted as the monk started coughing uncontrollably. "Just hold on, we're almost there."

"Please…she's an innocent in this. She…needs…you."

"She's not my sister."

Robbie raised a brow at that as he was certain Buffy was an only child.

"She…doesn't…know…that" the monk told her with his last breath as his life ended, just as they pulled into the hospital.

* * *

Leaving the monk's body for the hospital staff to deal with Robbie and Buffy drove in silence towards the Slayer's home while she tried to process the night's events. Her sister wasn't really her sister; Dawn was this Key whatever that meant. That woman, the Abomination was hunting for her and Buffy was powerless against her. The only one that was able to actually injure her was Robbie, who's return after all this time was more than just a little surprising.

"We need to talk to Giles" Buffy told Robbie. "He needs to know what's going on."

"Fine" said Robbie. "But then you're telling me what's going on."

Arriving at the Summers house, Buffy walked inside to find Joyce, Dawn, and Gabe watching TV in the living room. Their attention drawn by the sound of the door they all looked over to see Buffy standing in the threshold.

"You're home" Joyce smiled, relieved her daughter was safe.

"Yeah and I brought company." Buffy stepped aside, allowing the others to watch in disbelief as Robbie Reyes stepped into view.

The Summers women didn't say a word as they watched the Reyes brothers stare at each other, afraid to accept that they could actually be reunited.

"How're you doing?" Robbie asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm still standing" said Gabe a wry smile on his face. "You? How was your trip?"

"Nothing but sunshine and rainbows."

Buffy couldn't help but smile as she was reminded of the first time she saw the Reyes brothers together.

Later that night after everyone else had gone to bed, Giles arrived at the Summers home. Buffy explained the situation concerning Dawn and the mysterious woman searching for her. And while Giles had voiced how pleased he was for Robbie's return; he was understandably distracted by the reveal of Dawn's true identity.

"Uh, I don't know what to say" said Giles.

"Tell me about it" said Buffy, looking towards the stairs, thinking of the sleeping Dawn. "I mean, I have all these memories of her. Except they aren't real. But they feel real. I can still feel what it was like to grow up with her."

"Do you want to tell her?" Robbie asked.

Buffy shook her head, "No, how could I? She'd just freak out and that's the last thing we need."

"So, what do you want to do?" asked Giles.

"They sent her to me, Giles. I think ... I have to take care of her. I want to."

Giles nodded, "Do we tell the others?"

"No. No one. They-they'd act weird around her" said Buffy. "It's safer for everyone if they don't know."

Buffy and Giles looked to Robbie, asking him to keep quiet as he was the only one who's memories were unaffected by the monk's spell.

"Fine" he said curtly. "As long as she doesn't put Gabe in danger."

"Hope that means I can count on you" said Buffy. "It was all I could do just to slow her down until you showed up."

"Yes." Giles stood up and began to pace the living room. "We have to find out who this woman is, and what she needs Dawn for."

"She seemed to know the Rider" said Robbie. "She called the Spirit by a name."

"That could help" said Giles. "How exactly were you able to find her in the first place."

"Not to mention, how'd you even get out of the Hellmouth anyway?" Buffy added. "I think we'd notice if it opened again."

"I think it might've been whatever spell the monks did to make Dawn" said Robbie. "It created a tear between dimensions. It's how I escaped. When I did, I could feel something was wrong with the world. Something dark that didn't belong."

"Dawn?" the last thing Buffy needed to hear was that the Spirit of Vengeance was coming after her sister. Sure, she thought Dawn could be a brat but that wasn't enough to warrant having her soul burned to ashes.

"No. It was that woman. As for how I found her; the thing in me is drawn to dark. Sort of like a GPS. And the Rider wants her gone."

"Good riddance." That was definitely something Buffy could get behind. "So, you going to go for a ride and send her packing now?"

Robbie shook his head, "No. I don't know how but she's hidden herself. I can't sense her now."

"Then for now, we'll need to be on alert" said Giles. "I mean, if she comes after you…"

"She'll come" Buffy said with certainty, as she looked towards the stairs. "She'll come for us."


	10. 2-2

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

The next morning Buffy and her friends were hard at work packing up her dorm room. Stacking boxes in the hall outside her door, Buffy stood aside as Xander and Riley struggled to carry out her mini-fridge. Which ended with Xander accidentally bumping his hand on the door frame.

"Ow! Thumb!" he cried. "Necessary opposable thumb!"

"Sorry. Crybaby" Riley laughed.

Buffy shook her head, "You know what, you guys, just leave it here."

"Got it." Riley and Xander put down the fridge, just as Dawn emerged, carrying a stack of boxes tall enough to block her vision.

"I don't need help" she said defiantly, when her sister attempted to assist.

Knowing how stubborn she can be, Buffy simply told Dawn to be careful before stepping back into the dorm where Willow, her girlfriend Tara, Anya, and Giles were working to fill up the numerous boxes around the room.

"But we just helped her move the stuff in a few days ago..." Anya complained, before turning around and spotting Buffy walk into the room. "...and it was fun!"

People help each other out, Anya" said Giles, while he stood around reading a book. "It's one of our strange customs."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Giles, I noticed you're doing the smallest amount of helping that can actually be called helping."

"Well, I saw myself in more of a ... patriarchal sort of role. You know, lots of pointing and scowling" to make his point Giles smiled and looked around the room, scowling as he spots Xander and Riley having a wrestling match in out in the hall. "You two, stop that!"

Properly chastised the two younger men immediately stopped with Xander holding Riley in a headlock.

"He started it" Riley said childishly.

"He called me a bad name" Xander defended, sounding just as childish. "I think it was bad. It might've been Latin."

"Stop it, or you're going to break something" Giles said sternly.

"Or I'm going to break something" Buffy added.

Under the threat of Slayer violence, the guys let go of each other and straightened up.

"Still can't believe you're giving up this cherry corner suite" said Xander.

"Just a few days after we moved you in!" Anya commented, failing to hide her annoyance.

"It's no big" Buffy shrugged, attempting to look casual. "You know, with Mom not being well, I'm hardly ever here. Just figured I'd ... save a little cash for this semester, that's all."

"I think that's smart" said Willow.

A small chill ran down Buffy's spine as she realized her sister's been gone a while, "Where's Dawn?"

"I think she just walked out" said Riley, not understanding the urgency.

Afraid of that she might've been taken, Buffy rushed to the door calling Dawn's name, only for her sister to breeze past her in a huff.

"Some of your CDs are my CDs" Dawn said outraged.

"I know" said Buffy, relieved her fears were unwarranted. "Come help me fold."

Not leaving her any choice, Buffy pulled Dawn over to the bed where Willow and Tara had been hard at work folding the Slayer's clothes. With the mini crisis adverted, everyone went back to packing and carrying out boxes (and reading in Giles' case.)

Though the task was a little tougher than usual for Buffy, who was still recovering from her fight with the mysterious woman (the abomination), the night before.

"Starting to feel that fight?" Riley asked, noticing his girlfriend's discomfort.

"Nothing like getting your ass kicked to ... make your ass hurt" Buffy quipped.

"Well, it's a good thing Robbie's back" said Dawn, not noticing the effect on Riley at the mention of the Ghost Rider. "You'll totally take her next time."

"Because you'll have backup, baby" said Xander. "And not just the Burning Man. She's messing with all of us."

"Yes, uh, we'll, we'll, uh, find her weaknesses" said Giles. "and then, uh…"

"Yeah. You learn her source" Tara grinned. "And, uh, we'll introduce her to her insect reflection."

Tara stopped smiling as everyone looked at her in confusion.

"Um ... that, that was funny if you, um, studied Taglarin mythic rites…and are a complete dork."

"Oh, then how come Xander didn't laugh?" Riley smirked.

"I don't know that Taglarin stuff" Xander replied, not catching that he'd been insulted.

"Oh."

Upset about her failed attempt at humor, Tara grabbed one of the boxes and walked out into the hall, shaking her head in dismay.

"Hey. You want start taking stuff down to the car?" Willow asked, oblivious to her girlfriend's distress.

Tara nodded, and Willow stepped back into the dorm room. As she carried her box outside, Tara quietly whispered to herself, "Stupid."

Once Tara was gone, Willow addressed everyone still in the dorm room.

"Guys, now remember, you have to be at the Bronze by eight."

"Bronze?" Buffy questioned, as she and the others stared at Willow blankly.

"Tomorrow night! Tara's birthday!"

Everyone awkwardly voiced how they couldn't forget so an important event. But Willow wasn't fooled.

"You-you guys can all still come, right?" she asked anxiously. "I mean, I know there's ... this new evil and all, but..."

"No, no. We'll be there" Buffy assured Willow. "I could definitely use a break from all this craziness."

Willow smiled, pleased that her friends would be there. "Oh, and Buffy tell Robbie he can come too." She then left the dorm to go find Tara.

"Ok. Anyone want to tell me, Who's Robbie?" Riley asked the group.

"That's a long story" said Buffy.

* * *

While the Scoobies were busy helping Buffy move out of the dorms, Robbie and Gabe were awkwardly sitting across from each other in the Summers' kitchen. The joy the brothers felt the night before at their reunion had turned uncomfortable as they struggled to move forward now that the truth of the Ghost Rider was hanging over their heads.

"I wanted to tell you" said Robbie. "I wanted to tell you for a long time."

"I thought you trusted me" said Gabe.

"I do. It's just how do you tell your brother you're…" Robbie struggled to finish his sentence, not wanting to say what he never wanted Gabe to see him as.

"So, tell me now" said Gabe, sparing Robbie. "Tell me the truth. All of it."

Robbie nodded, "Ok. Here it is…"

 **With a cocky smile on his face Robbie quietly wheeled his Charger out of the garage of his and Gabe's home back in Los Angeles. He'd just gotten to the curb, when he heard their front door open and there standing with an accusatory look on his face was Gabe.**

" **Why aren't you in bed?" Robbie demanded, ignoring the hypocrisy for him to be lecturing Gabe when he was the one sneaking out**

" **You're racing again." Gabe accused, ignoring Robbie's question.**

 **Robbie chuckled, "What can I say? This** _ **cholo's**_ **like an ATM. Won a grand off him last week. Now he wants a rematch."**

" **This the guy with the Fifth Street?" Gabe asked worriedly. The Fifth Street were known as the Locos for a reason.**

" **Relax,** _ **hermano.**_ **Dude just likes to race" said Robbie, seeing the worry in his brother's eyes. "Besides that, money's going to help us get out of here. You want to come with?"**

 **Gabe's eyes lit up with excitement, "What happened to me being a good boy and going to bed?" he asked, getting in the Charger's passenger seat.**

" **Might as well let you live a little" Robbie shrugged.**

 **Turning on the engine, Robbie smirked as he enjoyed feeling the rumble of the engine and together the brothers drove downtown. Neither brother noticing a white unmarked van following behind them.**

"Are you still beating yourself up about that night?" Gabe asked Robbie, interrupting his brother's story.

"What night?"

Gabe and Robbie looked towards the door to see Joyce standing there, leaning against the wall for support.

"You should be resting" said Gabe, as his brother helped the woman into a chair.

"I was just feeling a little hungry" said Joyce. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop."

"It's fine" said Robbie. Having heard Joyce was sick, he got to work preparing a bowl of soup for the woman.

"Robbie, blames himself for me being in the chair" Gabe told Joyce.

"Because it's my fault" said Robbie.

"It was bad luck."

"There's no such thing as luck. There's decisions and consequences. And I made a whole lot of bad decisions that night. Like bringing you along."

 **Gabe knew they didn't live in the safest neighborhood. Gangs like the Fifth Street Locos made sure of that. Still he couldn't contain his excitement over Robbie actually allowing him to see the seedier side of LA.**

" **So, how fast are we gonna go in this race?" he asked.**

" **First of all,** _ **we**_ **aren't racing. You're just watching" said Robbie, though he couldn't help but smile at how excited Gabe was, thinking he'd made the right decision to let his brother come along. "Secondly, it's not about how fast. It's about torque. Quarter mile, zero to 60, max acceleration."**

 **Gabe was always in awe whenever he heard Robbie talk about cars. There was no doubt in his mind that Robbie had the potential to make something great out of himself.**

" **What?" Robbie asked, noticing his brother was staring at him.**

" **Why won't you go back and finish school?" Gabe asked.**

" **You know why" Robbie sighed, playfully tapping the back of Gabe's head.**

" **Yeah but you can't make your entire life about taking care of me. You're smart Robbie. If you went back, you could become an engineer or something."**

 **Robbie smiled, "Gabe, I love what I do, man. I'm good at it. Besides I'd rather be working on cars than getting worn down in an office."**

 **Stopping at a red light the white van from earlier cut in front of the Charger and stopped, and was in no hurry to move even after the light changed.**

" **Ah, come on" Robbie complained, honking his horn. "¡Ándale, viejo! We got some money to make."**

 **The Reyes brothers smiled, enjoying a night out together. But their happy smiles were quickly replaced by looks of terror as the back of the van opened up revealing a group thug, they recognized as members of the Fifth Street Locos. And at the front holding a Molotov was the gangster, Robbie had agreed to race.**

 **Realizing it was all just a setup, Robbie threw the Charger into reverse just as the Loco threw the Molotov. More frightened than he'd ever been in his life Robbie slammed his foot on the gas and sped off down the street with the Fifth Street Locos following after them.**

" **Just stay down. We'll get out of this!" Robbie told Gabe, trying to convince him just as much as himself. And for a moment Robbie really believed it as the Charger left the Locos' van behind for a moment he thought they were safe.**

 **But then another car full of Locos pulled up next to them. Robbie barely had time to take what he was sure to be his last look at his brother as the gangsters opened fire on them. Losing control, the Charger flipped off a curb and sent toppling end over end, as Robbie was flung out of the car.**

"Oh, my god" Joyce gasped, she couldn't imagine how frightened the brothers must've been, going through something like that. She knew there was evil in the world; her eldest daughter was a Vampire Slayer after all. But something about gang violence just made it seem more real to her.

"I was still stuck in car" said Gabe, taking over for Robbie as he gave Joyce a bowl of soup. "I couldn't move, couldn't feel my legs. I was just lying there. And I saw Robbie just lying there in the street" he looked over at Robbie, whose face was twisted with guilt. "I was so sure you were dead."

"Because I was dead" said Robbie.

"Robbie, you're crazy" Gabe couldn't believe it. He had a hard-enough time having to accept the supernatural was real. But his brother had just admitted to coming back from the dead.

"Am I? What do you remember about the Fifth Street attack?"

"You mean after I thought you were dead?" Robbie nodded. "I guess…it was the good Samaritan."

"Good Samaritan?" Joyce asked, thankful for at least a small mercy in the tragic tale.

"Yeah" Gabe nodded. "I while I was stuck, I heard this guy's motorcycle pull up. He got me out of there and then checked on Robbie, then he moved, and I knew he was alive."

"Did you ever get his name?" Joyce couldn't help but ask, much too absorbed into the tale.

"Don't know. I never saw him" said Gabe. "He just stopped, saved us, and moved on.

"That's not what happened" said Robbie. "The first part is like you said. The fire, the chase, the shooting. But what I remember most is feeling like I screwed up. You were going to die because of me. We both were."

"But we didn't. We survived."

"Now, this is the part I never told you. The thing I tried to hide. When I was thrown from the car…"

 **As his body was thrown from the car, Robbie knew these were to be his last moments. In that time, all he could think of was to pray. He begged God, the universe, anyone that was listening that Gabe would survive, swearing that he'd give anything, do anything to save his brother. And then he hit the street and was thrown into darkness.**

 **As his soul prepared to leave the living world behind a voice called out to him.**

" **Do you want a second chance? Do you desire to punish those that who hurt your brother, and avenge your death?"**

" **Yes" Robbie answered. "More than anything, yes."**

" **Then we have a deal."**

 **Suddenly Robbie was snapped out of the darkness and back into his body, struggling for breath. But he wasn't alone. Standing over him in a black biker jacket was the Ghost Rider. Robbie screamed as the Rider placed his hand on his head, the hellfire spreading over him as the Spirit of Vengeance took him as its new host.**

"That's the deal I made" said Robbie. "I swore to go after those who spilled innocent blood. And then I was reborn."

"You killed all those Locos" Gabe realized. The street gang's sudden collapse a few years ago now made a lot more sense.

"Those gangsters got what they deserved for hurting you."

"But I didn't ask for that!" Gabe snapped at Robbie. "So, I can't walk anymore. You don't hear me complaining about it."

"Gabe…"

"And you're still doing it. This whole vengeance thing. It got you thrown into Hell! Have you even thought of looking for a way to get rid of that thing?"

"I did" Robbie confessed. "I wanted it gone."

"Did?" Gabe said in disbelief. "You like being the Ghost Rider, don't you?! Everything's fine as long as you can get payback on anyone that pisses you off."

"Gabe, it's not…" Robbie paused, realizing Gabe wasn't about to hear him out, he stepped outside deciding to clear his head in town.

"I think you should've heard him out, Gabe" said Joyce. "I don't know anything about spirits and deals. But I do know that your brother loves you more than anything. You're what keeps him grounded."

"But he's choosing to stay with that thing" Gabe argued.

"Maybe he has a good reason. Maybe he doesn't have a choice. What does matter is that your brothers and you can't let anything get in the way of that."

* * *

Over at the Magic Box, Buffy and Xander were busy going through Giles' extensive book collection attempting to identify the mysterious woman coming after Dawn. All while trying to figure out what they should get Tara for her birthday.

"Come up with anything yet?" asked Giles.

"Well, candles, maybe, or bath oils of some kind" Xander replied.

"I saw a really cute sweater at Bloomy's" said Buffy. "…but, I think I want me to have it."

"And you are talking about what on earth?" Giles asked, not sure what any of that had to do with research.

"Tara's birthday" said Buffy. "We're at a loss."

"You're in a magic shop, and you can't think what Tara would like" Giles said incredulously. "I believe you're both profoundly stupid."

"Well, we don't really know ... the kind of things witches like" Xander said defensively. "What, are we gonna get her some cheesy crystal ball?"

"Bloody well better not" said Giles. "I've got mine already wrapped."

Just then one of the customers, a bearded, blonde-haired young man turned away from the shelves he was browsing, in favor of examining the large pile of books on Buffy and Xander's table.

"Uh, are all these magic books?" he asked, picking up one of the books.

"Private collection" said Giles. "Books for sale are against the walls over there," he gestured at the shelves lining the back of the store. "Is there something in particular you are looking for?"

The blonde man started chuckling, just as the front door opened and Willow and Tara walked in, laughing. But the laughter quickly came to an end as the man turned towards them, and Tara couldn't keep the shock of her face.

"What's the matter? You don't have a hug for your big brother?"

"Brother?" Willow questioned. Tara hadn't mentioned having any siblings before.

"Willow, this is Donny" said Tara, looking uncomfortable. Willow stepped forward and shook Donny's hand, with the later saying it was nice to meet her. "And, uh, these are my-my friends."

Donny looked back at the others, who nodded and waved.

"What, all of you hang out? Wow. That's more people than you met in high school." Donny gave Tara a friendly punch on the arm.

"How did you fi - I, I mean, how come you came?" Tara asked.

"Well, duh, birthday girl." Donny chuckled. "We came down in the camper, been all over the campus."

"We?"

Tara and Willow turned as the door opened and a stern looking man in a long black coat followed by a pretty blond girl about Tara's age entered the shop.

"Uh, Dad, hi" said Tara.

"Well, here's my girl."

Willow stayed back, as Tara walked up and awkwardly hugged her father and greeted the young lady, her cousin Beth.

"One of your dorm-mates said I might ... find you here" said Mr. Maclay, looking around the shop with an odd expression on his face. "I don't mean to interrupt your plans, I know we've come on you, kind of suddenly, but I thought we could have dinner."

"Ok" Tara nodded.

"Why don't I pick you up at six. And we'll..." Mr. Maclay glanced at the others. "do some catching up."

"Yes, sir."

Saying they were double-parked, Mr. Maclay and the others left, leaving the Scoobies to go about their business.

* * *

Later that day, Tara returned to her dorm room only to find her father standing there, scowling at her assortment of witchcraft supplies.

"The door wasn't locked. I was a little early" he explained. "I suppose you wanted me to see all these…" he picked up and examined a large crystal. "toys. You don't even try to hide it any more. I'd hoped maybe you'd gotten over the whole witchcraft thing. That if we let you go, you'd get it out of your system. Then they told me to look for you in…that store" he finished in disgust.

"I didn't - I, I didn't kn-know that you were coming" Tara stuttered.

"Of course, we came" said Mr. Maclay. "We haven't heard from you in months. Your birthday's getting closer and closer. You know what that means."

"I don't think it's...it, it won't mean that…"

Mr. Maclay walked towards his daughter, "You're turning twenty. It's the same age your mother was when she... Do your friends even know?"

"Y-yes."

"Are you lying to me?" Tara looked down in shame. "Tara, you're coming home with us. You know it's the only way."

"Home?" Tara's head shot up.

"You can't control what's going to happen. You have evil inside of you and it will come out. And letting yourself work all this magic is only going to make it worse. Where do you think that power comes from?"

"It ... it doesn't feel evil ... sir."

"Evil never does. I don't feel much like eating right now. I'll give you some time, but we need to be gone by morning." Walking past his daughter, Mr. Maclay stopped at the door. "Your family loves you, Tara, no matter what. How do you think your friends are going to feel when they see your true face?"

* * *

That night Giles called the Scoobies to the Magic Box after hours for a group meeting. With Robbie still gone and wanting to give her mother a break, Buffy brought Dawn and Gabe along, leaving the two of them free to browse the store while they worked.

"Hey, you ok?" Dawn asked Gabe.

"Not sure" Gabe shrugged. "Just thinking about some stuff."

"About Robbie?"

Gabe nodded, he just couldn't understand why his brother wasn't spending every minute working on some way to rid himself of the Ghost Rider. The younger Reyes brother was pulled from his thoughts as the door opened and Willow walked in.

"Hey. Am I late?" she asked. "Did I miss any exposition?"

"No, no, no, no, nothing earth-shattering to relate" said Giles. "I just have a few thoughts, and, uh, wanted to make sure that we were all on the same page."

"Can I buy one of these?" Dawn asked, as she and Gabe approached the group's table, showing her sister a magic book.

"No" Buffy said immediately.

"With my own money?"

"I let you come, now sit down and look studious."

Dawn huffed in annoyance but relented, taking a seat at the table with Gabe making himself comfortable next to her.

"Well, first of all, I want to talk to you about ... safety" said Giles. "Um, this creature could be-"

"Will be" Buffy interjected.

"Will be coming after Buffy, and possibly all of us."

As the Scoobies held their meeting, unbeknownst to them, Tara was hiding in the back of the store, listening. Her father's words about her friends seeing her true face, echoing in her mind.

 _I have to do this._ Whispering an incantation, Tara held out her hand and blew red dust out of her palm. The dust floated into the room, unnoticed by the Scoobies

"Now, I may have a lead on this monk that Buffy spoke of. There, there are a few orders that I've read up on…" floating to the middle of their table, the dust turned yellow and then shot out at them, causing them all to flinch as the dust hit their eyes.

"I-I'm sorry, where was I?" Giles asked, looking confused.

"The monk" said Buffy.

"Yes, um, I'd like us all to start looking at these orders, I-it's possible whichever one this monk belonged to was wiped out entirely."

Her work done, Tara slipped out the back.

* * *

Needing to clear his head, Robbie had spent the day driving. But he knew he needed to talk things out with Gabe eventually. After learning from Joyce where Gabe and the others were meeting, Robbie set off for the Magic Box.

The last thing he expected was to arrive and find them all standing around, while a grey skinned demon with red bloody-looking sores all over its face, was sneaking up behind Buffy, seemingly unseen by everyone there.

"Buffy!" Robbie cried, summoning his chain. Buffy dropped to the ground just as Robbie whipped his chain forward, the knife end piercing the demon's skull, just as a second one came charging out of the backroom. "Behind you!"

"You can see them?" Buffy asked, as she turned and punched at the demon. Unable to see her target, her attack missed, allowing the demon to grab and flip her over its shoulder and smash her into a table.

Seeing Buffy was in trouble, Robbie stepped towards the demon just as Tara came running into the shop. Seeing all the damage her spell had caused, Tara recited an incantation to counter her previous one. Seconds later the demon was visible to everyone just in time for them to watch it burn as Robbie's hellfire chain wrapped around it and turned it to ash.

"Tara?" said Willow, noticing the tears in her lover's eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm s-s-so sorry" Tara sobbed, as she fell to her knees. "I was, I was trying to hide. I didn't want you to see...what I am."

"Tara, what?"

"What do you mean, what you are?" Buffy demanded.

Tara found she couldn't form the words. But she didn't have too, as her family arrived to take her away.

"Demon. The women in our family have demon in them" said Mr. Maclay. "Her mother had it. That's where the magic comes from."

"Tara?" Willow looked at Tara in surprise.

"We came to take her home before..." Mr. Maclay sighed. "Well, before things like this started happening."

"Tara cast a spell on us, to keep us from seeing her...demon side" Giles realized. "That's why we couldn't see our attackers."

"Nearly got us killed" said Buffy.

Tara scrambled to her feet, "I'll go. I'm very sorry."

"Wait" Robbie said suddenly. "I don't really know what's going on, but she's no demon. Trust me, I'd know."

Those that were aware of Robbie's abilities as the Ghost Rider understood what he was hinting at. While Mr. Maclay was starting to grow frustrated by all of the interference.

"This is none of your concern young man" said Mr. Maclay. "She belongs with us. We know how to control her...problem."

"Tara, you don't have to go" Willow looked to Tara, urging her to believe. "Robbie, wouldn't get this wrong."

A hopeful look appeared on Tara's face, as she remembered Willow once telling her about Robbie Reyes.

"This is insane. You people have no right to interfere with Tara's affairs" Mr. Maclay snapped. "We are her blood kin! Who the hell are you?"

"We're her family" said Buffy, as together she, Gabe, Anya, Willow, Xander, Dawn, and Giles stepped forward in support of Tara. "If you want to take Tara, you'll have to go through all of us."

Tara smiled with tears in her eyes.

Donny stomped forward, in an effort to intimidate his sister, "Tara, if you don't get in that car, I swear by god I will beat you down."

To everyone's surprise, Robbie despite not knowing Tara, stepped forward placing himself between her and the rest of the Maclays.

"You try, and I'll show you a real demon" Robbie threatened, his eyes glowing with hellfire. Frightened the Maclays stumbled back. "Now get out."

Faced with the threat of seeing a real demon the Maclays made a hasty retreat. With the threat of her family taking her away gone and now assured that her family's myth about the women in their family being a lie, Tara wrapped and arms around Willow and smiled tearfully.

"Thank you" she mouthed silently at Robbie over Willow's shoulder.

Robbie nodded, and moved to check on Gabe.

"This is why you're ok with it, isn't it?" Gabe asked. "Being the Ghost Rider."

"I don't always like it" said Robbie. "But I'll ride with it until my time's done. Until then, I can protect you. Fight against stuff like this."

"Guess, I'm ok with that." Gabe had to admit Joyce was right, Robbie did have a good reason. Besides he'd take a Ghost Rider brother over a brother like Donny any day.


	11. 2-3

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

Mist-shrouded the Sunnydale graveyard as Buffy went to work pounding a vampire dressed like a Van Halen reject into the ground.

"You know, it's probably none of my business but I just got to ask…" the vampire lunged at Buffy, but the Slayer simply backhanded it away. "You smell this bad when you were alive?" Buffy followed up with a kick to the chest sending the vampire flying into a headstone. "Because if it's a post-mortem thing, then boy, is my face red…" she flipped the vampire over the headstone and whipped out a stake. "Just so you know, the fast-growing field of personal grooming has come a long way since you became a vampire."

Buffy somersaulted over the headstone, stake raised and ready to strike. But before she could finish it off, the vampire seized Buffy's arm as she landed, spun her around and plunged the stake into Buffy's abdomen.

Eyes wide with shock and fear, Buffy looked down at the stake in her gut. With shaking hands, she gripped the shaft, and with a gasp of pain, pulled it out.

For the first time in a long time, fear gripped Buffy's heart. Realizing the hunter had become the hunted, Buffy turned and ran. She didn't get far before the vampire leaped over her head, blocking her escape route.

"You're going? But you were having so much fun a minute ago?"

Buffy brought up her stake but the vampire easily knocked it out of her grasp, and tossed her up against a nearby crypt. Doubled over in pain, Buffy was left wide open as the vampire picked up her stake and approached with a predatory grin on his face.

Helpless, Buffy knew this was the moment she's been dreading but always knew would come. She was going to die.

As the vampire raised the stake for the killing blow, he was suddenly tackled to the ground by Riley. Riley pummeled the vampire before reaching for the taser on his belt. But before he could use it, the vampire knocked Riley off him and took off running across the graveyard. Riley was about to go after him when he noticed the state Buffy was in.

"Buffy!" Riley rushed to Buffy's side "what happened?"

Buffy held up her bloody hands, then collapsed into Riley's hands, unconscious.

* * *

The next morning Riley and Buffy were in her room with the former patching up her stab wound.

"I can't believe I passed out" said Buffy embarrassed. "Do you think I'm a total wuss now?"

"Oh, yeah" Riley said sarcastically. "I like a girl who can play a few hard sets of tennis with a major stab wound."

"You said it wasn't that bad."

"I said I've seen worse. There's a difference."

"Well, at least no major organs got kebabbed."

"I still think you need to see a real doctor."

"That would put me in a real hospital which would get my real mom real freaked out. I can't do it. Don't worry. Accelerated healing powers come with the Slayer package. And the boyfriend who comes complete with combat medical training? That's just a Buffy Summers bonus."

"So, tell me about the bad guy or guys. What do you think they were?"

"Vampire" Buffy admitted reluctantly.

"How many?"

"One."

Riley failed to hide his surprise. He'd assumed Buffy must've been severely outnumbered. "So…what? He was like a super-vampire or something?"

"No, he was just a regular vamp. He just beat me."

"That ever happen before?"

"I'm in the best physical shape of my life. I mean, if you're asking how it happed, I don't…" Buffy's door suddenly flew open and Dawn ran inside. "Dawn!"

"Sorry to interrupt the sex-capade" Dawn quipped. "But I thought you'd like to know Mom's coming."

Knowing the last thing Joyce needed was stress, Riley immediately hid the bandages and medical tape, just as she walked into the room.

"Hi, Riley" Joyce smiled.

"Hey, Mrs. Summers. How're you feeling?"

"I'm fine, bordering on chipper and tomorrow planning on being obnoxious."

"Glad to hear it" Riley smiled, seeing the resemblance between Joyce and her daughters.

"Buffy, when you have a minute I'd like to go over the grocery list for the next week."

"You got it."

Joyce turned to leave when she noticed a bottle of rubbing alcohol on Buffy's desk.

"Are you disinfecting something?"

"Huh? Oh, uh…" Buffy struggled to find a good excuse.

"Mine!" Dawn chimed in. "Some nail polish experiments are doomed before they even begin."

"But you keep pushing the envelope, honey" Joyce smiled, and left the room closing the door behind her.

The moment the coast was clear, Dawn turned on her sister with a smug look on her face.

"Did I just pull a Slayer-related Mom coverup thing? Come on, who's the man?"

"You are" said Buffy. "A very short, annoying man." Dawn's smile fell a little. "If I show you something, you promise you won't tell?"

Dawn crossed her heart and Buffy lifted her shirt, revealing her bandaged stab wound.

"Oh, cool!" Dawn awed but quickly changed her tune when she saw the look on Buffy's face. "I mean, gross!"

"And Mom cannot know. Ok? you'll have to help me with the household stuff?"

"Oh, sure. I save your butt and you dump all your chores on me" Dawn said sarcastically. Buffy gave her a look. "I got it. You're covered. Just lucky it's not bikini season."

Buffy smiled and stroked Dawn's hair.

"So, Dawn takes household duty" said Riley. "I'll take tonight's patrol."

"By yourself?" Buffy didn't like that idea.

"Just a sweep" Riley assured her.

"Do me a favor? Will you please take the gang along?" Buffy asked.

"Ok. I will patrol with the group tonight" Riley promised.

* * *

That night Riley moved stealthily among the headstones, ducking from shadow to shadow. Stopping behind a large marble slab he raised his arm, fist closed, and pumped it up and down twice before moving further into the cemetery.

Willow, Anya, and Xander were following about twenty yards behind him, munching on potato chips and making no effort to conceal themselves.

"What's with the hand move?" Xander asked Willow. "Does that mean something?"

"It's code" Willow replied. "I think it breaks down to 'choo-choo'."

"It means to follow him" said Anya. "That or wait here for him."

They stopped and watched Riley's covert movements for a moment. Willow turned to Xander, "Ask."

"Hey, Riley! What's the-" Xander mimicked the hand gesture. "- all about."

"It means yell real loud to the vampires who don't know we're coming will have a sporting chance" said Riley exasperated.

Xander turned to Willow, "See, now he's all mean and sarcastic."

"That's because you were doing all the yelling, Mr. Stealthy-Pants" Willow shot back.

"It's their fault" Anya said to Riley.

"Guys, I'm thinking if we split up, we could cover more ground" said Riley. "Tell you what? I'll take the cemeteries, you guys get the Bronze."

"Are we not being covert enough?" asked Anya, with Xander and Willow voicing their apologies.

"We'll be sneakier. Promise" said Xander, munching loudly on a handful of chips.

"Ok" Riley sighed. "Just ditch the chips and watch my back."

"Done" said Willow, grabbing a handful of chips for herself before tossing the bag away.

Satisfied, Riley started moving further into the cemetery.

"You know what he's like?" Xander whispered, as they followed Riley. "He's like a cat. You know, a big jungle cat. How come I'm not like that? It's just so cool."

"I think you're cool" said Willow, munching on her chips.

Making more of an effort to do things Riley's way, Willow, Xander, and Anya did their best to copy his movements as they moved deeper into the cemetery. Ending with the four of them crouched down behind headstones watching as the rocker vampire that staked Buffy, shared the story with a number of vampires.

"Killed with her own weapon!" the rocker vamp laughed, holding up the bloody stake. "They should put this in a museum."

Enraged by the monsters' delight at nearly killing his girlfriend, Riley moved to confront the nest only for the others to pull him back.

"Are you nuts?" Xander hissed. "That's a whole nest over there."

"It's way too many to take on our own" said Willow.

"You're right" Riley admitted, seeming to calm down. "We'll come back at day…"

Riley's words fell silent as the roar of an engine sounded through the night. To his confusion Willow, Xander, and Anya seemed pleased to hear it while a quick glance showed the vampires having the exact opposite reaction, showing true terror.

Seconds later they watched as the Hell Charger pulled up onto the scene and Robbie Reyes stepped out.

"Hear you almost killed the Slayer" said Robbie, summoning his hellfire chain.

The rocker vampire didn't have time to even think of a retort before Robbie lashed out at him, burning him to ashes. From their hiding spot Riley and the others watched as Robbie single handedly destroyed the entire vamp nest without so much as getting a scratch on him before returning to his car and driving off.

"Well, guess we're not needed tonight" said Xander.

"Yeah, looks like Robbie's got things handled" Willow agreed. "Want to check out the Bronze?"

As the others planned to go to the club, perfectly content to let the Ghost Rider handle things, Riley couldn't help the feeling jealousy bubbling up inside himself. He should've been the one to make that vampire pay for nearly killing Buffy. And now he knew there was another superpowered guy in her life. How long until Buffy realized she didn't need him?


	12. 2-4

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

It's been a trying 24 hours for the Summers family. First Buffy nearly gets herself killed against some run of the mill vampire. And now all she and Dawn can do is stand around patiently at the hospital while their mother has a CAT scan.

"What is a CAT scan exactly?" Dawn asked Buffy.

"I don't know" she said honestly. "It's some…x-ray, I guess."

"Where do they get the CAT scan from? I mean, do they test it on cats or does the machine sort of look like a cat?"

"Dawn, I'm really…" Buffy stopped herself as she notices the apprehension in Dawn's eyes. Putting her arm around her, Buffy pulled Dawn in to rest her head on her shoulder, planting a loving kiss on her sister's head.

* * *

While the Summers sisters were preparing themselves for a long wait over at the Magic Box, Tara and Giles were looking over the store's new ad.

"'Your one-stop shop for all your occult needs.'" Tara read, "Catchy."

"Think so?" Giles asked excitedly.

"Uh-huh. In a…hard to read sort of way, but I think it's great."

"Oh" Giles face fell slightly, as he wasn't sure what to say to that.

Tara moved away as Giles started to study the ad, soundlessly mouthing the words to himself. Just as the door opened and Anya entered followed by Willow and Xander, who were in the middle of a debate.

"I just don't see the problem" said Xander.

"I'm not saying it's a problem" said Willow. "I just don't think it's fair to Robbie."

"How is it not fair? He's all about avenging innocent blood, killing vampires totally fits that. Am I right, Giles?"

"I'm almost certain you're not" said Giles. "But to be fair, I wasn't listening."

Tara then walked over and informed the group about the Magic Box's new ad in the phonebook. Excited, Anya rushed over to see if she was mentioned in the ad, only to be disappointed find she wasn't.

"So, what's wrong with Robbie?" Tara asked, while Anya processed her disappointment.

"Willow, thinks we shouldn't get too reliant on him taking care of patrols" said Xander. "Which I don't get. I mean, if he's getting vengeance on vampires instead of actual people what's the harm?"

"I'm not saying it's bad" said Willow. "I'm just saying we can't put the whole thing on Robbie. I mean, he's only been back for a few weeks. After spending all that time trapped in a demon dimension."

"You both make a good argument" said Giles. "The Ghost Rider has so far been satisfied taking vengeance upon the local demons. And while your concern is admirable Willow, we will need Robbie's help if we're to defeat Buffy's mystery woman."

"Oh, yes, the mystery woman we can't find anything about" said Xander. "How're we supposed to find something you never saw and don't know the name of."

"Just do what I do: flip through the pages and look busy" said Anya.

"It'd be nice if we knew where she's hiding out" said Willow.

"No doubt lurking around some sewer or condemned church or rat-infested warehouse" Xander guessed. "You know, the usual haunts."

* * *

Xander couldn't have been further off the mark as the woman in question was currently reclining in a round bed surrounded by shoeboxes in a beautiful, well-appointed apartment. A short scabby skinned demon dressed in monk's clothing kneeled before her, holding a scroll.

"Most beauteous and supremely magnificent one, this dark spell I hold in my worthless and scabby hand is our gift to you, most tingly and wonderful Glorificus…"

"Please, call me Glory" said the woman, as she tried on a pair of shoes. "And get up, looking at you is hurting my neck."

The demon immediately climbed to his feet, "Forgive me, shiny special one. I beg of you to rip out my inadequate tongue."

Glory reached out her hand, "Give it."

The demon grinned and walked forward, sticking out his tongue. But instead of reaching for his tongue, Glory instead took the scroll from the demon's hand much to his disappointment.

"Oh, I thought…" the demon laughed nervously, as Glory examined the scroll. "You should know, your elaborate marvelousness, that this dark incantation has been lost for eons…"

"Uh-huh" Glory tried on another shoe. "Dreg, is it?"

"Yes. Dreg. Your creamy coolness has honored me by speaking my name. Your voice is like a thousand sweet songbirds that…"

"Yeah, I never get tired of hearing that" said Glory, sounding irritated. "Look, just so we're clear, the spell's gonna work, right?" Dreg nodded anxiously. "I mean, nothing's worse than a gift that doesn't work. Then I'd have to get all mad and kill you! It's this whole big thing."

"It'll work, your extremeness" said Dreg. "Provided you have the other items you need."

"Don't worry. I'll have them all right." Glory walked past Dreg to the coffee table, where an open copy of the phone book was sitting open on Giles' ad. Tearing the page out, she smiled. "I'll have it all."

* * *

Unaware of what's been going on, Riley arrived at the Summers home, finding that the front door was slightly a jar. Worried, Riley entered and found no sign of any of the residence, only stumbling across a blanket on the stairs.

Having some suspicion as to who was in the house, Riley went upstairs to Buffy's room and found what looked like a Billy Idol wannabe in a long black leather coat, going through Buffy's drawers.

"What're you doing here, Spike?" Riley demanded.

Seeing he'd been caught, Spike whirled around to face Riley, hiding one of Buffy's sweaters behind his back.

"What, me? I was um…uh" Spike struggled to find a good excuse. "What are you doing here?"

Riley stepped into the room, "Looking for the girl who's going to rip your arms off when she finds out you were in her room."

"Oh yeah? Well…me too."

Noticing Spike was hiding something behind his back, Riley reached for his hand. But Spike flinched away and tried to maneuver himself, so Riley wouldn't see what he was holding.

"Were you…were you just smelling her sweater?" Riley asked, bemused.

"No" Spike scoffed, Riley glared at him. "Well, yeah, alright, I did. It's a…predator thing, nothing wrong with it. Just…know your enemy's scent, whet the appetite for a hunt." Spike sniffed the sweater openly, making growling noises as he pressed it against his face. "Ah, that's the stuff! Slayer musk, it's bitter and aggravating!"

Riley had seen enough. Snatching the sweater out of Spike's hands, he grabbed the vampire by the front of his shirt and dragged him out the room, missing when Spike made a grab for a piece of lacy pink underwear from one of the drawers as they passed.

Riley hurried down the stairs dragging Spike behind him.

"Hey, watch it!" Spike complained. "You're bruising the leather!" reaching the bottom of the stairs, Riley let the vampire go. "Look. I know for a bleeding fact the Slayer wouldn't mind me being here."

"Right. What's a little sweater-sniffing between sworn enemies" Riley snarked.

"Hey, twice in recent memory, she's had the lover-witches do a de-invite on the house. Keep out specific vamps. Ever ask yourself why she's never taken my name of the list."

Riley faltered for a moment, "Because you're harmless."

"Oh yeah, right" Spike scoffed. "Takes one to know, I suppose. Least I still got the attitude" the vampire gave Riley an appraising look. "But way I hear it, Slayer's got a new ringer. Face it, white bread. Buffy's got a type, and you're not it. She likes us dangerous, rough. Not that she doesn't like you…but sorry, Charlie, you're just not dark enough."

Riley scowled, grabbed Spike and tossed him out into the sunlight and watched as the sun's rays caused the vampire to burst into flames.

"Am I dark enough for you now?" he smirked, as the vampire burned.

"Bloody pull me back in, you sod!" Spike bellowed.

"You don't know anything about Buffy" said Riley. "You never did. I'm the one who knows what she needs."

"Oh yeah? That's why you're with her at the hospital right now, giving her what she needs."

That got Riley's attention. Pulling Spike back into the house he demanded, "What're you talking about?"

"Don't you know, didn't she tell you?"

"You tell me." Spike's mocking tone was getting to Riley.

"Mum's sickly. Buffy took her to the hospital for a bit of prod 'n probe. Bite-sized one went too. You know, it's-it's funny her not calling you about that. I've known since last night."

Having heard enough, Riley tossed Spike back outside, kicking the vampire's blanket out after him.

* * *

Wanting to be there for Buffy, Riley immediately went straight to the hospital. Though his mood fell somewhat when he arrived and found that Buffy and Dawn weren't alone. Both the Reyes brothers were there offering their support.

Riley's more rational side understood that the brothers were staying with the Summers family, so it made sense for them to be there for Joyce. But he found it difficult to ignore that little voice in the back of his mind that suggested Buffy was replacing him with Robbie.

"Hey, I heard what happened" he told Buffy, forcing down his jealousy. "I thought maybe you'd…need…"

Buffy hugged him, "I do. I'm glad. I just, I-I didn't…I mean, until we knew what it was…"

"I understand" said Riley. "How's she doing?"

Buffy pulled back and looked towards the door marked, Examination Room. "She just had a CAT scan. I was about to go in and find out. Will you…sit out here with Dawn while I talk to Mom?"

"Yeah, yeah, you got it." Swallowing his disappointment, Riley sat down next to Dawn and made it a point not to look at Robbie, not trusting himself to control his feelings.

* * *

Back at the Magic Box, Willow, Xander and Tara weren't making any progress in finding anything on Glory.

"It feels like we're going around in circle" said Willow.

"Our circles are going around in circles" said Xander. "We've got dizzy circles here, Giles."

"Maybe she's not in the books" said Tara.

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

"I mean, what if she's not a demon or sorceress or spirit or whatever these books cover? What if she's something else altogether?"

Having finished with a customer, Giles walked over to join the conversation. "Something new, you mean?"

Tara shook her head, "Something old. So old it pre-dates the written word."

Willow gasped as she remembered something important. "Giles, the Dagon Sphere. You said it was created to repel…"

"That which cannot be named" Giles followed, removing his glasses thoughtfully.

"So, I'm thinking maybe she…"

"Predates language itself?"

Willow nodded significantly.

"Well hey, if it means I don't have to read any more, woo! And might I add a big hoo!" said Xander.

"If Tara's right, then we're blind" said Giles. "There's…there's no way we can determine…her moves, her habits, where she'll turn up next…" placing his glasses back on, Giles turned around and found Glory standing there impatiently holding several items in her hands. "Oh! I beg your-"

"Uh-huh" Glory cut him off, holding up the items. "I want these."

Unaware of who he was speaking to, Giles quickly checked out the items and let Glory go on her way before turning back to the rest of the Scoobies.

"She could be anywhere. But if she is as powerful as Buffy says, I imagine it won't be long before she makes herself known."

Sighing they went back to the books.

* * *

Buffy stood there in a daze, blind to the world as her mind struggled to process what's happened. Her mother's doctor had just explained that they found a brain tumor. That the doctor kept on asking her questions wasn't helping things either. Buff was sure she was only moments from having a complete mental breakdown until Ben, the nurse she met a few weeks ago, called the doctor away saying he was needed elsewhere.

"Thought you looked like you needed a break" said Ben. "Guy's great, but he doesn't have the bone in his head that tells him when to back off."

"You mean…they, they didn't need him?" said Buffy, confused.

"Well, I'm sure someone does somewhere, they always do" he smiled. "He really is a great doctor. Your mom's in good hands."

"He, um, he was just telling me that there's nothing I can do."

"Yeah, I'm going to tell you the same thing. Give yourself a break. Listen, your mom's going to be asleep for at least another six, seven hours."

"A break?"

"Well, I just mean go out, get some air. Come back later on this evening, talk to the doc then if you want. My unsolicited advice of the day."

Buffy leaned her head back and sighed as Ben went back to work.

"Buffy" she turned to see Riley approaching, looking concerned.

Buffy wrapped her arms around him, "It's bad."

"I know" said Riley, wishing he could do more for her.

"I…I have to do something" Buffy pulled away from Riley and threw on her jacket. "There has to be a spell or something."

"Buffy…people get sick" said Riley. "I don't think magic-"

"That attitude's not helping" she snapped, cowing Riley. "I have to try."

"Ok."

* * *

"Maybe there's another way to go about this" said Tara. "Buffy said the woman called the Ghost Rider by a name."

"Yes, Zarathos" said Giles. "Of course. Perhaps the Spirit of Vengeance and this woman share a history."

"Argh, I can't believe we never thought to ask this" said Xander, much to the others' confusion. Leaving the table, he walked over to the register where Anya was busy looking over receipts. "Hey, An. You know anything about Robbie's ghost pal?"

"Well I know the Spirit of Vengeance isn't a ghost."

"Anything else? I mean you were a **vengeance** demon."

"Hmm nope. Vengeance demons fear the Ghost Rider just like everybody else" said Anya. We used to be called wish demons but D'Hoffryn worshiped the guy and renamed us vengeance demons in honor of the Spirit."

"So, vengeance demons are just a bunch of crazed fans" Willow said in shock.

"Hey, we took a lot of vengeance too" Anya said defensively, before suddenly stopping on a particular receipt. "Hey! Hey!" she stared shouting, waving the piecing of paper at Giles.

"Anya, your 'heys' are startling the customers" said Giles.

"And pretty much the state" said Xander.

Anya ignored the joke, too focused on the receipt in her hands. "You sold someone a Khul's amulet and a Sobekian bloodstone."

Giles took the receipt from Anya and examined it, "Yes, I believe I did."

"Are you stupid or something? You never sell these things together, ever! Bad news! Don't you know about the Sobekites?"

"Oh! I do" said Willow. "It was an ancient Egyptian cult, heavy into dark magic."

"And the Khul's amulet, wasn't that a transmogrification conduit?" said Tara.

"Damn straight!" Anya confirmed.

"Be that as it may, I still see no reason for concern. I mean, the-the Sobekian transmogrification spells were lost thousands of years ago" said Giles. "And besides, the young woman to whom I sold them would have to have had enormous power…" Everyone paused as they started to connect the dots. "Oh, dear lord."

* * *

Wanting to cheer up Dawn, Riley convinced them to make a stop at the park for a bit of a pick me up. But all the carousel music and ice cream in the world wasn't enough to distract Dawn from her worries.

"You're melting" Riley commented, referring to the barely eaten ice cream in Dawn's hand.

"Oh, um ... guess I'm not hungry" said Dawn.

"Maybe I'm not making this any better."

"No, I just...this is better" Dawn and Riley smiled nervously at each other for a moment. "I had my tenth birthday party here."

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm. We'd just moved to Sunnydale, and ... Mom rented the carousel for an entire hour for just me and my friends. Except I hadn't made any friends yet, so ... it was just me and Mom and Buffy riding it by ourselves, over and over and over again for the whole hour, just so Mom felt like we'd gotten our money's worth." Tears started to build in Dawn's eyes "She's ... she's not gonna get better, is she?" she asked, voice breaking.

"Absolutely she will. Summers women are tough."

"I'm really glad you're here" Dawn smiled. "Buffy's glad too."

"Yeah?" Riley smiled skeptically.

"She sure cries a lot less with you than she did with Angel."

"Angel...made her cry a lot, huh?"

"Every day was like the end of the world. She doesn't get all worked up like that over you."

Riley tried not to show how much that stung but failed as Dawn realized she'd accidentally said the wrong thing.

"I think you've been really good for her" Dawn smiled encouragingly. Riley tried to return it, but he just wasn't feeling it.

Riley wasn't the only one having girl problems. Robbie and Gabe were sitting at a nearby table, and the older Reyes couldn't help but notice his brother couldn't tear his eyes away from Dawn.

"You know, if you stare any harder she might burst into flames" he said jokingly.

"I think you're confusing me for you" Gabe said dryly.

Robbie chuckled. "So, what's the deal? You gonna just keep staring at her? Have you tried telling her, how you feel?"

"Her mom's in the hospital. Now doesn't seem like a good time."

Robbie agreed it definitely wouldn't go over well. Of course, as much as he enjoyed teasing Gabe over his crush, he wasn't sure if he should be encouraging it considering what he knew about Dawn's true identity.

"Alright, let's get your lady and pack up, it's time I got you two to school."

* * *

Over at the Magic Box, Buffy had arrived and explained the situation concerning her mother.

"So, I figured there has to be some kind of mystical cure, right?" said Buffy. "I mean, like a, a potion, or a spell or something. We have to look."

We can look...I mean, we will, but...I haven't seen anything" said Willow.

"The truth is, the mystical and the medical aren't meant to mix, Buffy" said Giles. "The human mind is very delicate. Too much can go wrong."

"Yeah, I've heard stories about people trying healing spells" said Tara. "If we did something, it could make things a lot worse, Buffy."

"We've done just about enough making things worse for one day, haven't we?" said Anya.

"Why? What do you mean?" asked Buffy, noticing the guilty expression on everyone's faces.

"Uh, nothing. Anya broke a...bippity boppity boo" Xander said unconvincingly. "Don't worry about it."

"I did not!" Anya snapped. "I didn't break-"

"Anya, Buffy doesn't need to hear about your...clumsiness right now."

"My clumsiness. I mean, that is so…" Willow and Xander gave her meaningful looks. Seeing how stressed Buffy was, Anya finally caught on. "...like...me. Slippery, slippery...butterfingers."

But Buffy wasn't fooled. "What happened?"

"Nothing to concern you, uh-"

"Giles!"

Giles sighed and embarrassingly admitted, "The, uh, demon woman was here, the one who attacked you."

"It's no biggie" said Willow, trying to downplay the situation. "She-she just got an amulet and a bloodstone."

"That can create a monster" said Anya.

"Ok, biggie."

"My god, are you guys ok though?" Buffy asked worriedly. "I mean, did-no one got hurt, right?"

"Oh no, thankfully" said Giles. "Uh, no violence to speak of."

"Ok, so, that's good" Buffy still wasn't getting why they all looked so guilty. "How did she get away with this bad mojo stuff?"

Everyone traded embarrassed looks, not sure how to go about telling Buffy what happened. Luckily there was Anya.

"Giles sold it to her."

Buffy gave Giles an accusing look.

"I-I didn't know it was her! I mean, how could I?" he said defensively. "If it's any consolation, I may have overcharged her."

"Anya figured out what the demon lady's up to" said Tara.

"Yeah, a few thousand years ago there was this cult, of demon reptile worshipers, the temple of Sobek" the former demon explained. "They were reptile worshipers. Their high priest Khul had great mystic powers. He, um, forged an amulet with transmogrifying crystal."

"Transmogrifying is changing a living thing into a different kind of thing" Willow explained.

"We've managed to decipher the markings that were on the bloodstone" said Giles. "Cobra. She's going to transmogrify a cobra."

"Ok so she's making a monster" said Buffy. "What for? What does it do?"

"That's the part we're still working on."

"Well, you keep working on it I'll go kill it." Buffy got up to leave stopping at the door to as Giles called for her attention. "What? I'm going."

"Buffy, this chick creamed you last time" said Xander. "You might want to call in for backup."

It was a tempting thought to call Robbie. The Ghost Rider had already proven a match for the woman. "I just wasn't ready for her last time" she said, deciding Dawn was safest if she left Robbie with her. "I am now."

"But you-"

"But what? Will" Buffy cut her off. "I can't just sit here. I have to do something."

Hearing no further argument, Buffy took off.

* * *

Over at the Sunnydale zoo, Glory strolled through the reptile house, searching the displays until she finally came across her target. Punching her fist through the glass, the shards having no effect on her skin, she plucked a cobra out of its habitat, smiling as the snake hissed angrily in her face.

"Chill, worm. I'm gonna make you a star!" she laughed.

Glory then dropped the snake into a large clay vase, while her demon minion, Dreg watched anxiously. Handing his mistress, the amulet, at her command he began to chant from the scroll.

"Sobek, grant the power…that it may mold this wretched creature…that it may be reborn...that it may serve..."

"Ah! Dark incantations! Always overwritten!" Glory complained. "Why can't they just cut to the-" Suddenly Buffy arrived on the scene, tackling Glory into a wall. Followed by a kick to the face. "No fair-" Buffy kicked her again. "attacking-" Buffy then landed few quick punches to her stomach, followed by a hook to the face "when I wasn't even looking!"

Buffy then grabbed the back of Glory's head and started slamming it repeatedly against the wall. By this point Glory had, had enough. Easily over powering the Slayer, Glory broke Buffy's hold and reversed it, and slammed her into the wall.

"No, this is no good." Buffy tried for another punch only for Glory to grab her arm and twist it behind her back. "I'm out of the moment and you're not giving me anything I can use." Glory then slammed Buffy into the ground, holding her there with little effort. "Dreg! I'm not hearing chanting!"

"Yes, Glory" Dreg, resumed chanting.

Glory then pulled Buffy onto her feet, though the Slayer was finding it hard to stay standing.

"Hey, hey. Work with me here" Glory complained, as she threw Buffy into another wall. Buffy found she couldn't even defend herself as Glory was already on top of her, grabbing her by the hair the mad woman kneed the Slayer in the face. "There! That feels more real, don't you think?"

Glory then grabbed Buffy by the throat and lifted her off the ground. Too weak to struggle, Buffy could only gasp for breath, while Glory took a moment to look around for any surprises. "Nope. No flame headed savior, today. Guess, it's up to me to carry your performance." Glory then tossed Buffy aside, watching as the Slayer was sent crashing through one of the glass habitat case. "And scene!"

Beaten and bloody, Buffy could only watch as the clay vase exploded, signaling the completion of Glory's spell, as a giant cobra demon with arms emerged from the vase's shattered remains.

The vase rocks wildly back and forth. Suddenly it explodes as the creature bursts out of it. It looks like a very large snake, but with arms. It hisses and sways back and forth.

"He is arisen!" Dreg proclaimed.

"'Bout damn time!" Glory smiled.

While Glory and Dreg were distracted by the creature, Buffy picked herself up and made her escape unnoticed.

Fade in on the reptile house. Dreg and Glory watch the creature arising. Buffy picks herself up and climbs out of the cage, unnoticed.

"Spawn of Sobek" Glory called for the monster's attention. "The power is yours to see what is unseen. To find what is shrouded in shadow. Already, you know what I seek. I have given you form, now find for me the Key. Seek it out in the holy places. Let your vision guide you to its hiding place, and then return to me and tell me where it lies."

* * *

After dropping Gabe and Dawn off at school, Riley and Robbie arrived at the Magic Box with the former immediately noticing Buffy's absence.

"Where's Buffy?" Riley asked Giles.

"Um, she-she left a while ago."

"Where?" Riley sighed. _Of course, she didn't tell me._

"That creepy demon woman's conjuring some kind of monster" said Xander.

"Why didn't she call me?" Robbie demanded, his eyes flashing as the Spirit of Vengeance raged over the missed opportunity to deal with Glory.

"We told her too but as you know Buffy can be quite stubborn" said Giles, taking an involuntary step back from Robbie.

While Giles was dealing with the irate Ghost Rider. It hadn't escaped everyone else's notice that Riley was practically shaking in jealous anger at the idea of Buffy calling Robbie over him.

"Riley, are you ok?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, I'm just a little crazed" said Riley, burying his anger.

"I hear ya" said Xander.

"If, uh, Buffy needs me…" Riley shrugged and left the store.

"What's his problem?" Robbie asked the group. The Scoobies just shrugged, not wanting to get Robbie more involved in Riley and Buffy's relationship then he already apparently was. "Whatever, you find anything on this demon lady?"

"Well, we think she's older than language itself" said Tara. "So, we've been trying to find a connection by digging into the name Zarathos."

"Problem is we can't find anything concreate" said Willow. "Some of the passages say Zarathos is a cruel demon lord. Others say he's an angel that was dragged to Hell and tortured into becoming the Spirit of Vengeance."

"Oh, and Anya's old boss apparently worships him" Xander added.

"Yeah, because that's not crazy." Robbie couldn't imagine anyone warped enough to actually worship the Rider.

"Want to help us keeping searching?" asked Tara, holding a book out to Robbie. Accepting it, Robbie sat down and joined the Scoobies.

Hours later, Giles was finishing up with a customer when the store phone rang.

"Magic Box, your one-stop spot to shop for-"

" _Giles, it's me._ " Buffy's voice came over the line.

"Buffy! Are you alright?"

" _No, I'm really not. I-I couldn't stop her. I couldn't even slow her down."_

"Where are you?"

" _Sunnydale Memorial."_

"Are you badly hurt? I'll come right over."

" _No. No, I-I just wanted to warn you that that thing she conjured, it's loose it's a big snake thing. Not mayor big, but it's pretty lethal looking_."

"Do you know why she raised it?"

" _I don't know yet."_

"I'll warn the others. We'll get weapons, we'll fan out-"

" _Wait. What time is it?"_

"Half past four, why?"

" _School's out. Dawn's on her way over to you. Giles-"_

"Understood. We'll keep her safe here until you arrive."

" _Thanks. And Giles..."_

"Yes?"

" _Dawn's kind of fragile right now. About Mom. She doesn't know how bad it is."_

"We'll not say a word."

" _Well, my mom's gonna wake up soon, and I should...be there when the doctors tell her."_

"She's in good hands, Buffy. There's really nothing else you can do."

" _Ok. Bye."_

"Bye."

* * *

That night Buffy walked into the Magic Box. Her friends were spread out around the store, tiredly going through books. The sound of the doorbell catching her attention, Dawn immediately jumped up from where she was studying with Gabe and rushed over to Buffy, sharing a hug.

"Is she awake yet?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah. She's waiting for us" said Buffy.

Dawn pulled back and looked at Buffy searching her face – for what she wasn't sure. "Can we take her home now?"

Buffy tried to smile but just couldn't manage it. "We'll see. Go get your stuff."

Willow and Giles watched with concern as Dawn hurried to collect her things.

"So, any monster reptile sightings?" Buffy asked quietly.

"None" said Giles. "Robbie is still out searching though. Hopefully he'll find it before…"

Suddenly the Spawn of Sobek burst in through the display window. Slithering into the store the snake creature knocked aside a display case, toppling it over onto Buffy, as it focused its attention onto Dawn.

"Dawn, get back!" Buffy cried, as she struggled beneath the display case.

Dawn couldn't move, frozen by fear all she could do was scream as the Spawn loomed over her. The snake creature's eyes glowed red as it looked beneath Dawn's outer appearance. Identifying her as the Key, the Spawn then turned and left the store.

"Dawn, you ok?" Gabe asked. All she could do was nod, as Dawn struggled to find her voice.

"Why was the big snake afraid of Dawn?" Willow wondered.

Giles rushed over to Buffy as she freed herself from under the case.

"It knows!" she whispered to him. Giles nodded understanding Buffy had to go after the monster.

Running out onto the street, Buffy watched as the Spawn slithered down the sending people running screaming in panic as it passed. The sound of a familiar engine roar had Buffy turn around just as the Hell Charger pulled up.

Without a moment to lose, Buffy immediately hopped into the passenger's seat, "We've gotta stop this monster before it gets back to Glory"

"Glory?" Robbie asked.

"That's what her stooge called her" said Buffy. "If that thing gets back to Glory, she'll find out Dawn's the Key. If that happens…"

"It won't." Hellfire flared around the Charger as Robbie slammed his foot on the gas, speeding after the Spawn. Fueled by the power of the Rider, the Hell Charger easily caught up to Spawn of Sobek.

Driving alongside the Spawn, the Ghost Rider phased up through the roof of the Hell Charger, wielding his hellfire chain. With a crack, he whipped the chain at the monster, wrapping it around the Spawn's body. The creature screamed as it was road-hauled behind the Hell Charger until it was released mid-turn and was sent tumbling through a chain-link fence into an empty park.

A bloody mess, the Spawn still tried to complete its task. Wriggling along the ground, it didn't get far before the Hell Charger stopped in front of it. Getting out of the car, Robbie stood back and watched as Buffy relieved some pent-up stress and unleashed a relentless barrage of blows to the creature's head, hard enough to splinter the ground beneath it and continuing long after the Spawn of Sobek was dead.

Unbeknownst to them, Glory was watching them from her apartment window. Frowning at the sight of her dead monster, she closed the curtain behind her, the arcane symbol on the fabric glowed as its magic hid her presence from the Spirit of Vengeance.

She would need to think of another plan to find the Key. But first she thought she'd punish Dreg for a bit.


	13. 2-5

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

With their mother, still being held at the hospital until her surgery, Dawn and Buffy had been spending every moment they could at the hospital with her. Currently they were doing just that with Dawn curled up next to Joyce in her bed with Buffy sitting right by their mother's bedside.

"Listen you two, I know this creamed spinach is pretty delicious" said Joyce, her tray of hospital food. "but I promise, I won't be offended if you go out for some real food"

"You kidding me? This is the good life" said Buffy. "Relaxing in bed while people bring you food on trays."

"I like the Jell-O" said Dawn, as she licked the desert off her fingers.

"Help yourself" Joyce laughed. "There's something about food that moves by itself that gives me the heebie-jeebies."

Just then Joyce's doctor entered the room smiling at the sight of Dawn and Buffy, commenting that they were becoming a regular presence in the building. Once the pleasantries were out of the way the doctor informed them that Joyce's surgery to remove her brain tumor was scheduled to take place in two days, before moving on to another patient.

"Uh, the day after tomorrow" Joyce whined. "I don't think I can stand to stay here another two days just waiting."

"Waiting? Come on, we got tons to do" said Buffy.

"We have soap operas to watch and trashy magazines to read" said Dawn.

"And an adjustable bed to fiddle with. That alone will keep me busy for four hours or so."

"Oh, I really don't need you to stay here, Buffy" said Joyce. "I know you've got patrolling to do."

"Not tonight. Tonight, I have mom-taking-care-of to do" said Buffy. "And besides, Riley's filling in for me with the others. I'm sure they have everything under control."

* * *

They did not have everything under control.

Giles had a dark-haired female vampire in a choke-hold from behind while Willow came at it from the front. Only for the vampire to shove Willow away and twist out of Giles' hold.

Getting to her feet, Willow rushed the vampire with a stake. But the vamp simple grabbed her arm, twisted the stake out of her grasp and tossed Willow over her shoulder. Giles tried to come to Willow's aid. Grabbing the vamp, Giles tried to lift her over his shoulder but the vampire took the opportunity to punch him in the back causing him to release her before knocking him to the ground with a knee to the chest.

Xander wasn't do so well either, as a blonde female vampire tossed him across the field. Picking himself up, he attempted to rush the blonde only for the vampire to sidestep him and grab him in a headlock and start punching him repeatedly in the face.

They weren't sure how much more of a beating they could to take. So, it came as welcomed relief when the Hell Charger came streaking through the graveyard, coming to a stop in front of them.

Stepping out of his car, Robbie was surprised to see that the vampires hadn't tried to run away having grown somewhat used to the blood suckers trying to escape from the wrath of his hellfire.

"Guessing you don't know who I am" he said, as he summoned his hellfire chain.

"We know who you are Rider" said the blonde vampire, tightening her hold on Xander. "We also know, you've been paling around with the Slayer and her little friends."

"And, we're guessing you don't want to have to watch us tear them apart" said the brunette, standing over Giles. "So, ditch the chain or we'll…ahh!" the brunette vampire screamed as Robbie's hellfire chain shot out and pierced straight through her chest reducing her to ashes.

At the same time, Willow who'd gone unnoticed by the blonde holding Xander, was dusted as the witch staked her through the heart from behind.

With the threat dealt with, Robbie leaned back against his car while the three Scoobies all recovered from the ordeal.

"My god, what a rough night" said Giles, gasping for breath. "Perhaps, next time we should not send Robbie elsewhere."

"Yeah, strength in numbers" Xander agreed.

"Did you see that?" Willow grinned. "Ghost Rider-Willow tag team actions. Yay!"

Xander grinned at Willow's bubbly attitude as he and Giles walked alongside her towards Robbie.

"Guess, splitting up wasn't the best idea" Robbie smirked, before noticing they were one-member short. "I thought, that Riley guy was supposed to be here?"

"Never showed up" said Xander. "That's definitely going on his permanent record."

"Things would have been easier if he'd been here" said Giles. "Perhaps he forgot."

Robbie just shrugged not wanting to dwell too much on the subject and offered Giles, Willow, and Xander a ride, thinking it best they stick together for the rest of the night.

* * *

The next morning, Willow arrived at Joyce's hospital room carrying a colorful bag.

"Care package! Special delivery for the Summers girls" she announced, their attention as she set her bag down on the bed next to Joyce. Dawn came rushing over with Buffy following at a calmer pace. "Oh, I feel just like Santa Claus, except thinner and younger and female and, well, Jewish." Joyce smiled at the joke as Willow reached into the bag. "This is an extra-special gift for you, Mrs. Summers…A beer hat. See, it's got cup holders, and a straw that goes directly into your mouth, and you can fill it with other stuff than beer. And somehow, when I was in the store this seemed like the most important idea and now there's the whole part where I'm crazy."

"It's perfect" Joyce smiled. "Thank you, Willow. You're very sweet."

Willow handed the beer hat to Dawn and reached back inside her bag. "Now, let's see, who's next? Dawn, I believe I have something in here for you..."

Joyce grimaced and rubbed at her temples.

"Headache?" Buffy asked quietly

Dawn and Willow immediately stopped smiling and looked at Joyce in concern.

"I'm fine!" Joyce assured them. "Go on, what else is in that sack of goodies, Willow?"

"All right. Dawn, to keep you busy." Willow pulled out a book marked "Spells" and handed it to Dawn, who smiled in delight.

"Ooh, spells! Thank you, Willow!" Dawn hurried over to a chair in the corner and started reading through her new book.

"You got her a book on spells" Buffy said disapprovingly. "The girl who can break things by just looking at them, now has a book to teach her to...break things by looking at them?"

"Oh, well, it doesn't actually have spells in it" said Willow. "Just history, and anecdotes, stuff like that." she then reached back into the bag. "Buffy, I have this for you," she handed Buffy a world history text book.

"Homework?" Buffy pouted. "Oh, I don't believe in tiny Jewish Santa anymore." Willow then pulled out a yo-yo and handed it to Buffy with a smile. "Thank You."

"The book is just in case you get a chance to look it over. We're doing World War One now. The last exam was really pretty easy, just underlying causes and trench foot. So, it should be no hassle to make it up."

Buffy sighed, "I don't even know if I'm gonna take that exam."

"I'd rip it in half and stick it in bed with me!" Joyce suddenly exclaimed, getting confused looks from the girls.

"Mom?" Buffy said tentatively

Joyce gave Buffy a confused look and said: "You know, I think I'm gonna take a little rest now."

"Ok. We'll be right outside."

Packing up their things, Dawn, Willow, and Buffy stepped out into the hall.

"What was she talking about?" Dawn said anxiously. "I mean, that was weird."

"It's ok" said Buffy. "I'm sorry, I should've told you. The doctor told me, the thing that's pressing on her brain, sometimes it, it might make her say weird things."

"Does she know she's saying them?"

"Not really. It's sort of like a flash, you know, but you saw her two seconds afterward. She was normal."

"And after the operation, no more pressing" said Willow. "She'll be all normal all the time."

"Is that right?" Dawn asked Buffy.

"Hey, Santa doesn't lie."

Dawn gave a small smile as she, Buffy, and Willow proceeded down the hall.

* * *

That night at the Summers house, Robbie and Gabe were just spending some time relaxing on the back porch, watching the night sky. Wanting to enjoy some long overdue alone time together; a rarity given Robbie's earlier disappearance and continued status as the Ghost Rider.

"Buffy earlier" Gabe told Robbie, as they looked up at the stars. "They're bringing Mrs. S, home tonight before her surgery tomorrow."

"Thought we were supposed to be chilling tonight" said Robbie. Personally, he didn't think taking Joyce out of the hospital was a good idea. He'd heard about her symptoms and none of them knew how to deal with something like that.

"They're going to need help" said Gabe, sharing his brother's concerns.

Robbie voiced his agreement. Considering Joyce had been kind enough to welcome Gabe and later himself into her home, it was the least the brothers could do.

But all thoughts of how to best help Joyce were pushed aside as suddenly a ball of fire streaked across the night sky, before it came crashing down somewhere in town.

"Stay here, I'm gonna go check it out" said Robbie, jumping to his feet.

"Forget that" said Gabe. "No way am I missing seeing a meteor."

"Thought you were trying to stay out of this sort of thing?"

"It' s a meteor Robbie not some kind of space demon."

Robbie hated to admit it but Gabe had a good point. He highly doubted he'd get into any trouble checking out a space rock. So, reluctantly he relented and allowed his brother to come along.

* * *

Arriving at the park, the Reyes brothers found they weren't the only ones interested. Xander, Anya, Willow, Tara, Giles, and Riley were already on the scene. Riley voiced his concerns with having Gabe around but the younger Reyes brother brushed his worries aside saying he was more than capable of going through a park.

"Besides, you should've seen what happened to the last guy that threatened Gabe" said Xander. "Trust me, only an idiot would go after this kid."

"Alright, I get it" said Riley, having grown tired of hearing how powerful the Ghost Rider is. "Everyone just stay close."

Moving deeper into the park they eventually discovered where the meteor had landed, at the end of a several hundred feet long trench, about four feet deep.

The Scoobies gathered along the edge of the trench, Giles moved his flashlight over the rock as Riley and Robbie jumped down into the hole.

"Wow. We have meteorite" said Willow.

"Is it hot?" Gabe asked, noting the steam coming off the meteor.

Riley started to reach out cautiously before Robbie impatiently pushed past him and placed his hand on the meteor.

"It's not hot. Just warm" he reported.

"And broken" Riley added, noticing a large crack in the meteor. Kneeling down to examine it, he noticed the meteor almost resembled a shell "It's sort of…"

"Hollow" said Giles, finishing Riley's thought.

"Yeah."

"So, uh, we're all thinking the same thing, right?" Anya said nervously.

"Festive piñata? Delicious candy?" said Xander, wanting to hope.

"Something evil crashed to earth in this and then broke out and ... slithered away to do badness" said Willow.

"You have got to be kidding me" Gabe groaned.

"In all fairness, we don't really know about the slithered part" said Giles.

"Oh, no. I'm sure it frisked about like a fluffy lamb" Anya said sarcastically.

"Let's look around. Maybe we can figure out where it went" said Tara.

Robbie and Riley climbed out of the trench and joined the others as they spread out to search. It was Willow, who picked up the trail, discovering the body of a security guard.

"Yep, the space lamb got him" said Anya.

"I don't see any marks on him" said Xander.

"I-I know him!" Willow exclaimed, recognizing the victim. "He, he was at the hospital, a mental patient. They released him today."

Examining the body closer, Riley was sure he spotted something. Taking out a pen, he stuck it in the guard's mouth, much to everyone's confusion.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Robbie asked.

Riley had to resist the urge to smile, at confusing the great Robbie Reyes "I'm not sure, there's something..." Everyone cringed in disgust as Riley pulled his pen out of the guard's mouth, finding it covered in a clear slimy substance. "Oh, that might be toxic, don't touch it."

"Oh yeah, touching it was my first impulse" Xander said sarcastically. Luckily, I've moved on to my second, which involves dry-heaving and running like hell. Oh, man, does that smell."

"So, what do we do now?" Gabe asked the group, forgoing his avoidance of the supernatural in favor of dealing with a real live alien.

"We can't call Buffy" said Willow. "I wanna call Buffy!"

"You can't. She's got...life stuff" said Tara.

"Besides, Buffy's not the only big gun" said Robbie.

In her panic, Willow had forgotten they had the power of the Rider on their side. More than enough to make up for an absent Slayer. "You're right. We'll just figure this out ourselves. We're experienced."

"Yes, because it seems like we're always dealing with creatures from outer space" said Anya. Except that we don't ever do that."

"This is definitely new territory" said Riley.

"Perhaps we should explore a bit more" suggested Giles. "Head into the woods a bit."

They all look into the woods finding it to be dark and scary looking.

"Who votes research?" said Xander.

Everyone raised their hands and starts to walk away, except Riley and Robbie.

"Research" Willow repeated, confused as to why they weren't following.

"I'm not much help when it comes to books" said Robbie. "Just ask Gabe."

"It's true" said the younger Reyes. "Cars are basically the only thing that interest him."

"I'm just not great at research either, which I'm sure you guys figured out" said Riley. "I like me a good crime scene. So, I figure I'll stay, examine the body some more, look around a bit. But maybe Robbie should go with you. I'd feel better if he was there to protect you."

Robbie didn't argue as part of him was worried about their space monster finding his brother while they were separated.

"Give us a call if you need help" said Giles.

"Believe me, something jumps out at me in the dark you'll hear me even without the phone" said Riley. "Call me if you learn anything."

"You got it" said Willow.

Riley watched as the others walked away. Once they were out of sight, he took out his cell phone and dialed.

"I need to speak to the man at the desk. This is A...this is Riley Finn. You have an Agent Miller, Graham Miller, he'll tell you who...Yes. Emergency frequency."


	14. 2-6

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

Riley watched as a helicopter landed and an entire squad of commandos in black clothing and berets marched towards him.

"You Finn?" asked the lead soldier.

"Yeah."

"Major Ellis. I'm in charge of this op." Ellis shook Riley's hand. "What's the situation, just the one civilian casualty?"

"That I know of" said Riley. "This way."

The commandos followed as Riley led them to where the body was. As they walked another of the commandos came up beside Riley, one he recognized as his friend Graham.

"You found a stiff in the woods and called us in? Don't you usually call your girlfriend for this kind of thing?" he grinned, getting a dirty look from Riley.

Once they reached the body, Ellis kneeled to examine it closely.

"I wouldn't touch that stuff in his mouth if I were you" said Riley.

"Toxic?" Ellis asked, as he stepped away from the body.

"No, just messy. Guy seemed to have simply choked on the stuff." Riley tossed Ellis a small vial of the stuff. "Near as I can tell, it's some kind of protein alkaloid."

"Does this fit the profile of any Sub-T (demon) you're familiar with?"

"Not sub-terrestrial, Major. Extraterrestrial" Riley directed them to the meteor. "It came out of that."

"Miller, set the trackers for a protein signature."

"Yes sir."

Riley shook his head, "No good, Major. This alkaloid's breaking down at an accelerated rate. It's dissolving too fast to track."

"You got a better idea?" asked Ellis.

"Thing came from space" said Riley. "Got to be some trace radiation."

"We have Geiger counters in the packs."

"Shouldn't be too much background gamma noise out here."

Going along with Riley's plan, Ellis ordered his men to unpack the equipment. They had a monster to catch.

* * *

While Riley and the commandos were out searching for whatever crawled out of the meteor, the others had set themselves up in the library in hopes of finding some clue as to what they were dealing with. Though some were more productive than others.

"Look at how teeny Mercury is compared to, like, Saturn. Whereas in contrast, the cars of the same name-"

"Xander, please, we have work to do here" Giles sighed, not in the mood for the younger man's antics.

Turning away from the solar system model, Xander walked over to the table where Giles, and Gabe were going through books.

"I still don't get why we had to come here to get info about a killer snot monster" he said, taking a seat.

"Because it's a killer snot monster from outer space" said Gabe. "I still can't believe this is happening."

"Demons enter our world in all sorts of ways" said Giles. "This one came from above."

"And the university library's astronomy section is the home of above-ness" said Xander. "Got it."

Anya and Tara then walked over, having finished checking the international periodicals, reporting that there hadn't been any reports of meteor landings in the last week.

"Well, then it would appear that the world is not being invaded" said Giles.

"I'm pretty pleased about that" said Tara.

"Uh, guys? I've got some stuff" said Willow, calling everyone to her computer station. "The most recent meteoric anomaly was the Tunguska blast in Russia in 1917. Some witnesses claimed the meteor was hollow."

"Sounds like our guy" said Robbie.

"How far back does this list of anomalies go?" asked Giles.

"Pretty far" said Willow. "Back to the Queller impact in the twelfth century."

"The what?" asked Tara.

"Queller. I-I don't know why they call it that, it didn't hit a place called Queller or anything. It landed just outside of Reykjavik in Iceland."

"Wait, I just saw..." Xander quickly picked one of the books off Giles and Gabe's table and started flipping through pages. "Queller. Quell...here, here! 'Primitive people used to believe that the moon was a cause of insanity. Sometimes they would pray to the moon to send a special meteor to fix the problem the moon had caused. These meteors were expected to "quell" the madmen.'"

"The man in the woods. He was a mental patient" said Tara.

"And he got pretty well...quelled."

"Okay, I'm looking in history right now" said Willow, pulling up another webpage. "It says in the Middle Ages there were these sweeping plagues of madness. People were losing their marbles everywhere. But then it would suddenly subside. And these dates look pretty close. Like-like maybe it happened after each one of the meteor events."

"So, something emerged from the meteors...and quelled the madmen" said Giles.

"Xander's little book made it sound like this Queller thing had to be summoned" said Tara. So ... who summoned it?

"My moneys on Glory, our resident beastie summoner" said Xander.

"Either way, it's enough for me to track this thing down" said Robbie.

Giles and the others watched as Robbie left to track down the Queller demon.

"We better call Riley" said Giles, remembering he was still out there trying to track the demon.

* * *

"Queller demon?"

" _Yeah, that's our perp. It's sort of a scavenger that can be summoned to kill-"_

"Crazy people."

" _Yeah, how'd you know?"_

"Because I've got five corpses here at the mental ward at Sunnydale Memorial."

" _You're at the hospital? Oh, listen, Riley, I...I saw Buffy's mom earlier, and she was acting kinda...wacky. Insane wacky, if you know what I mean?"_

"It's ok. Joyce was released earlier today. That intern, um, Ben, told me. They're safe at home."

" _Oh, good. A-and the thing, the Queller, is it still there?"_

"We – I think I've got it cornered in the air ducts. Look, Willow, keep at what you're doing. Call me if you find out how I can kill this thing."

" _Well, ok. Oh, and Robbie's out there to…"_

Riley hung up. The last thing he wanted to hear was how Robbie Reyes was coming in to save the day. Stepping outside, Riley regrouped with Ellis just as Graham came over to report their findings.

"Trail stops here, edge of the parking lot" said Graham.

"It stops?" Ellis repeated, not seeing how it was possible. Graham nodded

"It hitched a ride. Probably underneath a car" said Riley. "So much for containment."

"So, some poor mental patient checks out of here today, drives away with this thing, took it right to his own home."

Ellis' words set off alarm bells in Riley's mind. "I know where it's going. We've gotta move, now!"

* * *

At the Summers house, Dawn and Buffy were finding out just how difficult caring for their mother was. They were just watching some TV in the living room, when they suddenly heard a crashing noise from the kitchen. When they went to investigate they found Joyce rummaging through the fridge while she left something burning on the stove.

Fearing for their safety, Buffy quickly turned off the stove and dumped whatever her mother had left burning, while Dawn checked on Joyce. But their mother ignored her in favor of glaring angrily at her eldest daughter.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Buffy asked cautiously.

"I'm making breakfast" Joyce said angrily. "And you shouldn't eat any more, you're disgustingly fat." Buffy frowned, feeling hurt that her mother would say that, despite knowing it wasn't her fault. "Oh, Buffy, I don't know what I'm doing."

"You just need some rest. We'll put you back to bed."

Taking one arm each, Dawn and Buffy led Joyce out of the kitchen and back upstairs. Once they got her into bed, Buffy gave Joyce some medication from the hospital to help her sleep. Wanting to help sooth her, Dawn leaned over to caress Joyce's forehead. When suddenly she gasped, shooting up in her bed and staring at Dawn in horror

"Don't touch me! You – you thing!"

Dawn backed away, hurt deeply by her mother's rejection. "Mom, please!"

"Get away from me!" Joyce raged. "You're nothing, you're, you're a shadow!"

"Mom…" Buffy couldn't believe it but it seemed her mother was somehow able to see the truth about Dawn. "Mom, it's Dawn." she tried to get Joyce to understand but she wouldn't listen and continued to spit venom at Dawn.

Unable to stand the abuse, Dawn turned and ran from the room slamming the door behind her. After calming their mother for the moment, Buffy went to her sister's room, finding Dawn curled up on her bed in tears.

"She called me a thing" she cried. "She hates me."

Buffy kneeled down to Dawn's level, lovingly stroking her hair. "She loves you. Ok? She's not herself. I told you what the doctor said about the tumor."

Dawn shook her head, "No, not just Mom. People. They keep saying weird stuff about me."

"What're you talking about?" asked Buffy concerned.

"There was this man at the hospital he called me a thing too. And there was another one. Weird guy outside the magic shop. He said I didn't belong. He said I wasn't real. Why does everybody keep doing that? What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing. It's not you. I think there's something that happens in people's brains when there's something wrong. It's, it's like a short-circuit...and it makes them feel like nothing's real except for them. That's all it is."

Dawn wasn't convinced.

"Look, it is not you" Buffy stressed. "And if anyone says anything like that to you again, don't listen. Even if it's Mom."

"I hate it" Dawns said softly.

"I know. Just don't listen."

* * *

Easier said than done as Joyce continued to rant angrily through the night, bringing further pain to her daughters as they struggled to deal with the reality of their mother's condition.

"I just didn't know. Those eyes...Those eyes, they're like gasoline puddles! Tell me. Tell me because I need to know why, why are you staring at me like that?"

In her room, Dawn tried to blot out the sound, pressing pillows to her ears but her mother's mad ramblings sounded through.

"Does someone know you're here? Because they should have told you that at the gate. You are not supposed to be here. I need to rest now. I-I don't like the way you're staring at me! Did they tell you that at the gate?"

In the kitchen, Buffy tried to distract herself by washing the dishes. But then the realization she was out of her depth hit her. Turning up the volume of her radio, Buffy hoped the music would drown her out as she finally allowed herself to breakdown in tears.

But what the sisters didn't know was that not all of Joyce's ramblings were unfounded. For she wasn't alone. For hanging from her ceiling staring down at her was a creature with a humanoid face and slug-like body was none other than the Queller.

"Stop staring at me" Joyce said firmly. "I don't like it!"

The Queller squealed as it dropped down on its prey. Joyce screamed as she struggled to get the alien off of her, until the Queller spat a sticky slime over her face silencing her.

Having heard all the noise Dawn walked into the room and gasped as she saw the Queller on top of her mother. Grabbing a coatrack, Dawn attacked the space demon, shoving it off the other side of the bed.

Dawn looked around, frightened, trying to see where the Queller would strike from next. Suddenly the Queller rose up from behind the bed and launched itself at Dawn, squealing. Dawn screamed as she ducked out of the way. Grabbing her mother's arm, Dawn ran out of the room, dragging Joyce behind her and with the Queller in full pursuit.

Running into the bathroom, Dawn shut and locked the door behind them. With the Queller on the other side banging at the door, Dawn did the only thing she could think of.

"Buffy!"

Hearing her sister's screams, Buffy pulled herself together and raced upstairs. Finding no sign of the demon, she opened the bathroom door and found Dawn and Joyce cowering against the bathroom, with the latter wiping slime from her face.

"What is it?"

"There's something out there, Buffy" said Dawn. "It's after Mom!"

Buffy nodded, flipping a switch in her mind as she changed from frightened daughter to protective Slayer. "You guys stay in here. Don't leave this room."

As Buffy closed the door, the Queller dropped from the ceiling, landing on her face. Buffy and the demon struggled, slamming against the walls of the hallway before tumbling down the stairs. Upon impact, the Queller squealed and crawled away.

She grabs it and they struggle, slamming against a wall and then tumbling down the stairs. The Queller squeaks and crawls away. Climbing to her feet, Buffy rubbed the pain from her neck as she walked slowly through the dark house, in search of the Queller.

Slipping into the kitchen, Buffy grabbed the largest knife she could find, when she heard a creaking sound coming from behind the basement door. Suddenly the door popped open, Buffy raised the knife poised to strike, only for Spike to emerge from the darkness giving her a wary look.

"Spike?" Buffy sighed. "What the hell are you doing in my house?"

"Right then, caught me" Spike took a deep breath. "Your basement's full of junk. And me needing, uh, junk…"

Buffy stared in disbelief, "You were stealing?"

"Well, yeah" Spike shrugged, trying to slip something into his pocket. "Can't exactly work the counter at Burger Barn, can I?"

But Buffy spotted it. "Wait, are those pictures of me?"

Suddenly the Queller showed itself, pouncing onto Spike's face, knocking him to the ground. As Spike and the Queller struggled on the ground, Buffy could only stand there searching for an opening. In his struggle with the Queller, Spike's foot flailed out kicking the knife out of Buffy's hand.

With an exasperated look on her face, Buffy moved to retrieve the knife. Spotting the Slayer, the Queller jumped off Spike and tackled Buffy slamming her into a wall. Buffy struggled to get the Queller off of her, punching it as the demon tried to choke the life from her.

Suddenly Robbie came burst into the room. Wrapping the demon in his hellfire chain, Robbie pulled the Queller off Buffy, leaving them to watch as it burned to ash in midair.

With the Queller dealt with, Robbie turned his attention to Spike, who put his hands up in the universal sign of surrender.

"I was just helping out, Rider" he said, sounding uncharacteristically respectful. "No one left to burn here."

Rolling her eyes at their behavior, Buffy placed herself between Spike and Robbie.

"Seriously, another vampire" Robbie said in disbelief. "What, didn't learn your lesson last time?"

Buffy glared while Spike seemed pleased that Robbie had assumed he and the Slayer were in a relationship.

"Spike's harmless" said Buffy. "He's got a chip in his head that won't let him hurt humans."

For a moment Spike looked less than pleased by the reminder of his status and that Buffy was so casually sharing that information. Only to quickly replace it with a self-assured smirk as he stepped out from behind the Slayer.

"Like the Slayer said. All for fighting the good fight now."

Robbie wasn't convinced. To him it sounded like Spike was simply a beast on a leash and would be looking for the first chance he got to be free of it.

The discussion of Spike's allegiances came to an end as Riley came bursting into the house, followed by a squad of commandos. The traces of ash on the ground and Robbie's presence told him everything. The Queller is dead and once again Robbie Reyes was the big hero and Riley was left feeling useless.

"Are you okay?" Riley asked Buffy.

Buffy frowned not liking that Riley would bring the military into her home and ran back upstairs to check on Dawn and Joyce.

Thinking it smart to leave before the Rider decided to turn him to ash, Spike headed for the door whispering to Riley, "You just missed a real nice time," as he passed.

* * *

Back at the hospital, nurse Ben was leaving for the night. He'd just gotten into his car when he heard a voice coming from his backseat.

"It's strange. One might ask what exactly it is you think you're doing. He might ask what all this was meant to accomplish. Because to a humble postulant, it looks like chaos. Like unnecessary attention drawn where it ought not to be."

Ben turned to face his unwelcomed guest, none other than Glory's minion Dreg. "Get out!" he commanded angrily.

Dreg obeyed and got out of the car, moving to stand by the driver's-side window.

"Sir, forgive me. I just want to understand. Why summon the Queller?"

"Because I'm cleaning up Glory's mess" Ben sneered. "Just like I've done my whole damn life."

* * *

The next day Buffy sat by her mother's bedside as the nurse finished prepping her for surgery. Once the nurse had left, Joyce felt it was time to ask something of her eldest.

A nurse is putting an IV in Joyce's arm as Buffy sits on the bed by her, holding her other hand. Joyce winces as the needle enters her arm. The nurse finishes and leaves. Buffy sighs.

"Buffy, I'm gonna ask you something, a-and if I'm, if I'm being crazy you just tell me, ok?"

Buffy nodded, "You got it."

"The other day...well, actually, I'm, I'm not sure when, the days seem to all bleed together..."

"It's not important."

"No, I guess it isn't. I do know I was...pretty out of it, and I had...not-not a dream...exactly, more like I had this ... knowledge. It just came to me like...truth, you know?" Buffy frowned, suspecting what Joyce was talking about. "Even though it didn't seem...possible, even though I shouldn't even think such things."

"What?"

"That Dawn…She's not...mine, is she?"

Buffy stared at her mother, struggling to come to a decision. Taking a deep breath, she looked Joyce in the eye and said "No."

Joyce took a moment to absorb this.

"She's...she does belong to us, though" she said.

"Yes, she does" Buffy agreed.

"And she's important. To the world. Precious. As precious as you are to me." Buffy smiled and nodded and Joyce nodded back. "Then we have to take care of her. Buffy, promise me. If anything happens, if I don't come through this-"

"Mom-"

"No, listen to me. No matter what she is, she still feels like my daughter. I have to know that you'll take care of her, that you'll keep her safe. That you'll love her like I love you."

"I promise" Buffy promised tearfully, not wanting to imagine anything happening to her mom.

Joyce and Buffy hugged "Oh, my sweet brave Buffy. What would I do without you?"

Buffy just tightened her hold, asking herself the same question.

The nurse returned soon after and wheeled Joyce away for surgery.

For hours, the Scoobies waited for news on Joyce. Nobody said a word, not even the usually impulsive Anya, as none of them knew what to say as their worries grew with each passing minute.

Then finally after what felt like an eternity Tara noticed Joyce's doctor, still dressed in his medical scrubs, walking towards them. Everyone waited anxiously for the doctor to tell them the news.

"Ok, your mom's in recovery" said the doctor.

"What happened?" Buffy asked nervously. "Is she alright?"

"It was possible to visualize the tumor completely, which means I was able to get all of it. So, barring complications in recovery I think your mother's going to be fine. Of course, we're still going to have to watch your mother carefully, and, uh, have her back in here for some follow-up testing, but, uh, overall, I'd consider the procedure a complete success."

It was smiles all round, as everyone rejoiced at the good news. Unable to contain herself, Buffy hugged the doctor, thanking him profusely. Unfortunately, in her joy, Buffy had forgotten her Slayer strength and accidentally hurt the poor man.

"Sorry. Sorry!" she said sheepishly, releasing the doctor.

Putting a hand on his sour back, the doctor gave Buffy a funny look but said nothing on the matter.

While everyone was distracted by the good news, Riley took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed. Leaving only a letter behind he walked out of the hospital to meet up with Ellis and Graham.

"It's good to have you with us, Agent Finn" said the major.

Riley didn't say a word. Taking one last look at the hospital, where Buffy was waiting, Riley silently followed Graham and Ellis to where there was a helicopter waiting for them. He wasn't needed in Sunnydale but Riley hoped the military would be able to help him find some way he could make a difference.

 _Good-bye Buffy._


	15. 2-7

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

Though Riley's sudden departure hurt Buffy deeply, those feelings had to be pushed aside as they still had yet to make progress in the fight against Glory. Having exhausted all other options, Giles had gone to the Watcher's Council for help in their fight against Glory. In preparation, the Scoobies have gathered at the Summers home.

"I've had some news. It seems that the Council of Watchers has...found some information that may help us out" said Giles.

"About Glory?" Buffy asked.

"Presumably. We'll find that out when they…arrive. Could be very important."

"Arrive?" Buffy didn't like the sound of that. And she wasn't the only one. Robbie, couldn't help but notice neither Willow, Xander, or even Giles himself seemed eager to see them. "W-why do they have to come here?

"Yeah, don't they have phones?" said Xander.

"Yeah! Phones. See, I'd like them on phones" said Buffy.

"Watchers? They're like that Wesley guy, right?" Robbie asked. "Don't you work for them or something?"

"Buffy, quit working for them just before she fought Faith" Willow explained.

"But they are good guys, right?" Tara asked. "I mean, Watchers, that's just like other Gileses, right?"

"Except, they're scary and horrible" said Buffy.

"They can appear a bit...well, uh, hard-nosed, but, uh, well, essentially, their agenda is the same as ours, they want to save the world and kill demons" said Giles.

"Kill the current demons, right?" said Anya, fearfully stressing the fact she was now human.

"Giles, I don't want them to come here" Buffy whined. "I don't trust them. Make them not come here."

"They're probably already on their way. Our old friend Quinton Travers is...heading up the delegation. So, I must stress Robbie that you try to keep the Spirit of Vengeance under control."

"This Travers, guy got it coming then?" asked Robbie.

"Well, um…" Giles struggled to find a way to describe the Senior Watcher that wouldn't draw the Rider's ire. They wouldn't be able to learn anything if the Ghost Rider decided to take vengeance upon the entire Watcher's Council.

"They put me through that test, and it almost killed me. And then, when I was Faith, they almost killed me again. Honestly, I really can't handle almost being killed right now." Unfortunately, Buffy didn't share Giles' concerns.

"I don't like the sound of this" Anya said nervously. "They don't sound very ex-demon-compatible."

"Maybe it won't be so bad this time" said Willow, trying to be optimistic. "I mean, Buffy, they did think you were Faith last time. Now that they know you're just you, maybe they won't care enough to kill you."

"It's not just that. They're gonna screw everything up. I-it's a delicate time right now. I-I have to take care of Dawn, and-"

"But that's not new, you've always taken care of her" said Xander.

"Right. Right, I, I know that" Buffy faltered, for a moment forgetting just how detailed the monks' spell to insert Dawn into her past was. "It's just, you know, there's Glory, and I don't need the Council looking over my shoulder when I don't even know what we're dealing with."

"Well, that's precisely why we need to talk to them" said Giles. "If the Council knows something about Glory, her agenda or her origins, then maybe it will help us get a, a, a grip on what we're dealing with. Right now, I think we're, we're a bit lost."

"You sure their gonna give it to you though?" said Robbie. "Sounds like you've got some bad history with them. If they're coming here then you can bet it's a powerplay."

"Then maybe we need to make one of our own" said Buffy, an idea forming.

* * *

The next day, Quentin Travers and his entourage of six additional Watchers arrived at the Magic Box. Immediately making a spectacle of themselves the visiting Watchers overran the store driving away their customers and declaring the Magic Box closed for the duration of their visit.

"You knew you were gonna do this before you even saw the place" Giles glared at Travers.

"I'm sorry" the Senior Watcher said insincerely. "It's just for the duration of the Council's review."

"What review, Quinton? No one said anything to me about this."

"We've discovered information about this creature, your Glory. Some of it is clearly vital, the rest merely extremely disturbing. And it won't be handed over until we're convinced that you and your Slayer are prepared for it. Thus, the review."

It sounded so simple but Giles wasn't fooled. This was a show of power. A reminder that the Watchers Council was a force to reckoned with.

"I'm not having you put her through another one of your insane tests" Giles said quietly, controlling his anger over the situation.

"It's not a test. It's a check of her methods" said Travers. "We need to know that this information is safe."

"You can trust her. Buffy's come very far recently" Giles said confidently, just as the woman in question walked into the store.

Upon seeing the Watchers, Buffy immediately tried to back out before they noticed her

"Miss Summers" Travers called, stopping Buffy in her tracks. "good to see you again."

Reluctantly, Buffy walked inside and approached the Senior Watcher, "Mr. Travers."

"Giles has just been telling us of your progress. Perhaps you'll favor us with a demonstration while we're here."

"Right now?" Buffy asked. The last thing she wanted to do was perform for Travers.

"No need to rush you" said Travers, sounding like he had all the time in the world.

"They're ... staying a little longer than I'd anticipated" Giles said ruefully.

"We've already laid out our project for Mr. Giles. Nigel?"

A man of British-Indian descent stepped forward. "It's an exhaustive examination of your procedures and abilities. We'll observe your training, talk to your friends..."

"Talk to my friends?"

"Yes, we understand you're still taking civilians out on patrols" said Travers, making no effort to hide his disapproval. "Buffy, I can sense your resistance, and I don't blame you. But I think your Watcher hasn't reminded you lately of the resolute status of the players in our little game. The Council fights evil. The Slayer is the instrument by which we fight. The Council remains, the Slayers change. It's been that way from the beginning."

"Well, that's a very comforting, bloodless way of looking at it, isn't it?" Giles said scornfully.

Travers gave Giles a look of amusement before turning coldly back to Buffy.

"Glory is stronger than you. She's a more powerful instrument, if you will. We can help you. We have information that will help. Pass the review and we give it to you without reservation. Fail the review, either through incompetence, or by resisting our recommendations..."

"Resisting your recommendations? She fails if we don't do whatever you say! How much under your thumb do you think we are?" Giles angrily poked Travers in the chest. "She's not your bloody instrument and you have no right to do any of this!"

"Giles!" Buffy cried, as the other Watchers moved in to restrain him.

"I understand you think this is unfair. But there are factors which should motivate you to go along with the review" said Travers. "Now, I don't want to do this, but obviously we could shut this place down permanently."

"You can't do that. You don't have that kind of power."

"Of course, we do, and a great deal more. In fact, if you insist on fighting us, we'll arrange to have Mr. Giles deported within the day. Never set foot in this country again. Now perhaps you're used to idle threats and sloppy discipline, Miss Summers, but you're dealing with grownups now…Am I making myself clear?"

Buffy looked angrily from Travers to Giles, who couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye. Too ashamed for bringing this down upon them.

Certain of their victory over the willful renegade, Travers was shocked when a confident smirk appeared on the Slayer's face. The sound of his men's screams of terror alerted the Senior Watcher to the reason for her confidence.

The Ghost Rider was looming over his people, his burning eyes looking into their very souls, uncovering all of the dark acts the Council has performed in their service of the Greater Good.

"You said you wanted to talk with my friends" Buffy smirked, enjoying the fearful look on the otherwise composed Travers. "This is Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider. I'm guessing no one told you, he was back. It's true, I haven't been able to even slow Glory down. He managed to make her bleed."

Buffy and Giles watched in satisfaction as Robbie, walking past the other cowering Watchers, backed Travers up against a wall.

"See, I heard the Council's tried to 'recruit' the Rider in the past" Buffy continued. "Problem is the Council's not as pure and good as they'd like others to believe. Seems the Council's been guilty of some seriously shady business. Taking innocent young girls from their families and using them as weapons, just to start." By this point Travers was noticeably sweating as the Ghost Rider's demonic visage drew ever closer. "Now, I've made peace with my role as Slayer. And Giles has always supported me. So, the question now is should we just stand back and let the Rider take some long overdue vengeance on the rest of you."

"You don't want to do this, Miss Summers" said Travers, swallowing his fear. "You do not want to make an enemy of the Council."

Responding to the not so subtle threat, Ghost Rider roared in Travers' face, leaving the head of the Watchers Council shivering in his boots.

"No, you don't want to make an enemy of us" said Buffy, her eyes passing each of the frightened Watchers. "Let's take a head count. I have two powerful witches, a thousand-year-old ex-demon, a young man with an incredibly stubborn will, who's clocked more field time than all of you put together, a guy with one hell of a fiery temper, and an ex-librarian who is easily the best example of a Watcher, who you will be reinstating at full salary… ("Retroactive" Giles coughed) paid retroactively."

"You cannot be serious. The Council has unlimited resources."

"We have the Ghost Rider. And I'm going to be one pissed off Slayer if you try and threaten us again. So, do you want to try taking us all on or do you want to start cooperating and tell us what you know about Glory?"

Buffy had Travers beat and he knew it. The Watchers Council with all its so-called power and knowledge was essentially useless without a Slayer and they all knew it. And that was without making themselves an enemy of the Ghost Rider. Even if they managed to somehow defeat the current one, who's to say the next one wouldn't be driven to pick up where they left off.

"Very well" said Travers, taking a sigh of relief when the Rider backed off and returned to human form.

"Start talking" Robbie demanded.

Travers nodded, then turned to Giles. "Uh, Rupert."

"Quinton?"

"I don't suppose I could bother you for a glass of scotch?"

"Stop stalling" said Buffy. "Glory. Start talking. Just what the hell kind of demon is she?"

"Well, that's the thing, you see" Travers said hesitantly. "Glory isn't a demon…She's a god."


	16. 2-8

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

After the Council's startling revelation on Glory's true nature the Scoobies had gathered at the Magic Box to discuss. Though Glory wasn't the group's only concern as it drew ever closer to a very important date.

"Look, I know Mom wants to get together and make with the merry tomorrow night, but with everything that's going on..."

"This is exactly what you need, Buffy" Willow interjected. "A twentieth birthday party with, with presents and funny hats, and those candles that don't blow out."

"I just don't think this is the best time to break out the party piñata" said Buffy. "We need to stay focused if we're going to find a way to stop Glory."

"We're going up against a god. An actual mightier-than-thou god" said Xander, still trying to wrap his mind around it.

"Well, you know what they say" said Willow. "The bigger they are…"

"The faster they stomp you into nothing" Anya cut in.

Everyone looked at her, not sure how to the incorrect yet scarily accurate wording.

"She's right. I've thrown everything I've got at her and she just shrugs it off" said Buffy. "Robbie's the only one that's actually managed to hurt her. I'd gladly let him deal with Glory, problem is he can't find her."

"At least that's something" said Willow. "All we have to do is find Glory and then Robbie can get all Ghost Rider-y and take her out."

"That might pose some difficulty" said Giles, looking over the notes left behind by the Watchers. "From what the Council's been able to discover from the Book of Tarnis and other sources, Glory and two of her fellow hell gods ruled over one of the more seriously unpleasant demon dimensions."

"There's more than one?" Tara said in surprise.

"Oh, there are thousands of demon dimensions" said Anya. "All different."

"Hell is very relative" said Robbie, getting the group's attention as this was the first he's spoken of his experience after falling into the Hellmouth. "Dimensions, space, planets - - it's all connected. The Earth is just one territory in a war that's been going on forever."

"Yeah, well now Glory's stepped into ours" said Buffy. "Question is, why?"

"There's nothing to indicate that here" said Giles. "Just vague references to chaos and destruction."

"Ok, so, we know where Glory's from. What do we know about her? You know, she's tough, yeah, but no bolts of lightning, no blasts of fire, shouldn't a god be able to do that kind of stuff?"

"Usually, yes. Being in human form must be severely limiting her powers. All we have to worry about right now is she's immortal, invulnerable, and insane."

"A crazy hell god? And the fun just keeps on leaving" Xander quipped.

"From what I've been able to gather, her living in this world is seriously affecting her mental state as well" said Giles. "She's only being able to keep her mind intact by, uh, extracting energy from us. Well, from, from the human brain."

"Dude, what?" Robbie asked, not understanding Giles talk.

"She absorbs the energies that bind the human mind into a cohesive whole. Once drained, all that's left behind is…"

"Crazy people" Buffy followed.

Giles nodded, "Which is, I'm afraid, why there's been a marked increase in the ranks of the mentally unstable here in Sunnydale."

"At least vampires just kill you" said Tara.

"We have to find a way to stop her" said Buffy.

"Oh, well, Tara and I can work on some tactical spells" said Willow. "Maybe we can find something that'll help Robbie home in on Glory."

"Sounds good" said Robbie. "I've been feeling the Rider itching to get another crack at her."

"While I can't wait to see that matchup" said Xander. "What about this key thingy Glory's looking for?"

Buffy, Robbie and Giles exchanged looks.

"Yeah" Tara agreed. "Shouldn't we be trying to find it before she does?"

"I don't think that's what we should be worrying about right now" said Buffy.

"But they've got a point" said Willow. "Whatever Glory's planning on opening with the Key, I'm guessing it won't be filled with candy and flowers."

"So where should we start looking?" Xander asked the group. "Do we know where it used to be kept? Who saw it last?"

Robbie gave Buffy a look that said it was time to tell the others the truth. And Buffy found that she agreed. The time for secrets between them was over.

"Guys" Buffy called for their attention. "There's something that you need to know...about Dawn."

* * *

The next morning Willow and Tara were drawing symbols on the ground outside the magic shop, when Dawn and Gabe arrived. The younger Reyes brother didn't pay the witches work any mind, still ironically trying to limit his exposure to the supernatural world. Dawn on the other hand was undeniably curious.

"What're you guys doing?" she asked.

"Dawn, hey" Willow said uncomfortably, her mind reeling from what she'd learned about Dawn's origins. "Y-yeah, we're doing an early warning incantation. If anything, hell godly powerful comes within a hundred feet of the shop, then screechy siren things will, you know, screech."

"This should give us a heads-up so we can hide...the, um, Key" said Tara, sharing her girlfriend's discomfort. "We already put one up around your house."

"Cool, can I help?" Dawn asked enthusiastically.

Willow and Tara exchanged uncertain looks, worried about how the spell might react to Dawn's essence.

"Well, I don't think Buffy would like the, uh, black arts bumping' auras with the littlest Summers" said Willow.

Dawn nodded resignedly, "Yeah, whatever," and proceeded inside.

"How can she not be real?" Tara whispered to Willow, once Dawn was gone.

"She's real" said Willow, though she couldn't quite mask her uncertainty. "She's just...kind of ...new."

Once their work was complete, Willow threw down one last handful of dust; the symbols all flashed brightly and vanished, signaling the spell's completion.

Inside the store, Dawn made her way to the back table where Xander and Gabe were sitting, missing the uncomfortable look that appeared on Anya's face as she walked past the register.

"Thought you'd still be outside bugging Willow and Tara" said Gabe, looking up as Dawn approached.

"Total shut down" said Dawn, taking a seat between Gabe and Xander. "So, Xander, what's up? We on the case?"

"Yeah. Right on top, perched, ready for action" said Xander, shooting a desperate look to Anya. "How's my sweet fancy Dawn doing?"

Xander reached over and tickled Dawn's stomach. She giggles and tries to fight him off.

"Fine. What's up with you?" Dawn giggled, as she tried to fight off Xander. "Did you get into the sugar again?"

Xander froze unsure what to say

"You make a very pretty little girl!" Anya suddenly shouted in a fake tone.

Xander jumped up and moved to stand by Anya's side, "Anya, you want to help me with that thing?"

"Xander needs help with his thing!" wearing matching fake smiles Xander and Anya walked off.

Annoyed, Dawn looked to Gabe for an explanation but he just shrugged having no idea himself. Giles and Buffy then came walking out of the backroom, having a discussion on the Slayer's training regimen.

"I'm not sure our regular workout is...challenging you anymore. Perhaps we should make it harder."

"You always think harder is better" said Buffy. "Maybe next time I patrol I should carry a load of bricks, use a stake made of butter."

"Very amusing" Giles smiled wryly. "I'm sure Dawn and Gabe feel the same way about their schoolwork sometimes."

"That true?" Buffy asked, as she joined Dawn and Gabe at their table. "How was school today?"

"The usual" Gabe shrugged.

"Yep" Dawn agreed. "Big square building filled with boredom and despair."

"Just how I remember it" said Buffy. "So, what's the homework sitch?"

"We have to imagine what we'll be like ten years from now and write a letter to our future selves" said Dawn. "The teacher's clearly out of ideas."

"It's not that bad" said Gabe. "At least it's not more Shakespeare. I can only stand so much."

"Hey, you want to help?" Dawn asked Buffy.

"Maybe later. I have some stuff I have to do first."

"Is it about that Glory chick everyone's worried about?" Dawn asked.

Buffy glared at Dawn, "You've been eavesdropping."

"It's not my fault you keep having meetings at the house" Dawn argued.

"I'm guess you need Robbie's help again" said Gabe. He'd been wondering why Robbie hadn't moved them back to LA after his return. _You better not be planning to sacrifice my brother again._

"Yeah, he's helping me out" said Buffy. "But you guys don't need to worry about Glory…on second thought, if you see a crazy blonde in a tight red dress, run for your life."

"Guess you're freaking out because you have to fight someone prettier than you" said Dawn. "That is the case, right?"

"Glory is evil. And powerful. And in no way prettier than me."

"I just think you're getting soft in your advanced age. She doesn't sound that tough."

* * *

"Prezzies!" Despite her earlier protests, Buffy had no complaints when it was time to celebrate her birthday. All of her friends had gathered at the Summers house and the living room was covered in decorations and most importantly there was a pile of presents in front of her just waiting to be opened.

"See, just what you needed" said Willow.

"You are very, very wise" said Buffy, holding out her hands. "Now gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"What're you, twelve?" Robbie commented.

Buffy stuck her tongue out at the Robbie before turning to Tara happily accepting her present.

"This is extremely suspenseful!" said Anya, as they watched Buffy unwrap her gift. "I want the presents."

Buffy finished unwrapping the gift revealing a new dress. "It's beautiful. Thank you, guys."

"Well, we thought you'd get lots of crossbows, other killy stuff" said Tara.

"Yeah, so we figured, less killy, more frilly" said Willow.

"Here. Open mine" said Dawn, handing her sister a small package.

"It's not going to explode, is it?" Buffy asked, half seriously. Opening the wrapping she found a photo of herself and Dawn lying on a beach, in a frame covered in seashells.

"It's when we visited Dad that summer in San Diego. Um, I put the shells on it myself. We picked them off the beach."

"I remember" Buffy said softly, as she stared at the photo. Dawn grew uncomfortable as everyone, with the exception of the Reyes brothers, seemed to get emotional over the gift.

"Well, geez, don't get all movie-of-the-week. I was just too cheap to buy a real present."

"Thank you" Buffy hugged Dawn, exchanging a look with Joyce over her shoulder.

As the party went on, Joyce, Buffy, Giles, and Robbie moved into the kitchen to discuss.

"It still seems to me like there's a lot you don't know about this" said Joyce. "I mean, is she dangerous?"

"No" Buffy said firmly.

"Well, now, wait just a second. I assume you're talking about her existence rather than her intentions?" Giles asked Joyce.

"Exactly."

"Don't have a clue" said Robbie. "Whatever spell the monks did, didn't reach me. Guess it couldn't reach across dimensions. But the Spirit wants Glory, not Dawn. So, I guess that's a good sign."

The conversation ended as Dawn entered the kitchen.

"What's up, party getting slow?" Buffy asked.

"Uh, we need plates. Cake time."

Buffy smiled nervously as Dawn collected a stack of plates.

In the living room, Gabe was helping Tara and Willow prepare the cake, while Xander and Anya kept busy with some very public displays of affection. Then Dawn entered with the plates and everyone's attention was instantly on her.

"Why does everybody start acting all weird when I'm around?" Dawn demanded.

"Me?" Xander acted shocked. "Me not weird."

"I'm not an idiot. I know you're talking about me."

"They really weren't, Dawn" said Gabe. "But you do have a point. Why is everyone acting so weird around Dawn?"

"Nobody's being weird" said Xander. "And we weren't talking about Dawn."

"We were talking about sex" Anya blurted out, just as Buffy, Joyce, Giles, and Robbie walked back into the living room. "I mean, you know us, sometimes we like to pretend stuff."

"Um..." Joyce wasn't sure what they'd wandered into but she was sure she didn't want Dawn hearing about it.

"You know what? Let's not have this exchange of images right now" said Buffy, sharing her mother's opinion.

Unfortunately, Dawn just took it as her sister pushing her aside and covering for her friends' behavior towards her. "Oh. Right. Of course. Can't let Dawn hear anything. Fine. I'm just gonna go to bed. That way I won't accidentally get exposed to, like, words." Having had enough she stormed out of the room and raced up to her room.

"Ok, seriously, what's going on?" Gabe asked the group.

"Gabe, there's something you should know" said Robbie, not bothering to wait for Buffy's permission. He'd already paid for keeping secrets from his brother. "It's about Dawn…"

* * *

While Robbie was filling Gabe in about Dawn, the girl in question had decided that if no one was going to give her answers, she'd get them herself. Sneaking out her window, Dawn climbed down onto the back porch. Taking a moment to make sure she wasn't seen, Dawn turned to make her escape only to find Spike standing there with a box under his arm and a cigarette in his mouth.

"Geez! Lurk much?" Dawn yelped.

"I wasn't lurking" said Spike. "I was standing about. It's a whole different vibe."

"What're you…" Dawn smirked as she took a good look at the box Spike was holding. "Are you giving Buffy a birthday present? Oh my god. Weird. And chocolates? Lame. And the box is all bent, and, well, you know she'd never touch anything from you anyway."

Spike leaned in closer to her, and in a low menacing voice said: "Shouldn't you be tucked away in your beddy-bye? All warm and safe where nothing can eat you?"

But to the vampire's disappointment all this did was make Dawn laugh. "Is that supposed to scare me?" Spike sighed, feeling it was a sad day when he couldn't properly scare a little girl. "Sorry, it's just…come on. I'm scarier than you."

"Are not!" Spike denied, insulted by the idea.

"Am too. You're standing in the bushes hugging a bent box of chocolates, and I'm-"

"What? Sneaking out to braid hair and watch Teletubbies with your mates?"

"No." Dawn looked back at the house, checking to make sure no one had heard her, then turned back to Spike. "I'm breaking into the magic shop...to steal things."

Spike frowned, "Magic shop, eh? All number of beasties between here and there. Bet they'd really go for a little red riding hood like you. Bet that wouldn't sit too well with big sister."

"I can take care of myself" said Dawn, trying to hide her uncertainty. Spike wasn't fooled and just stood there, while the anxiety grew inside her until finally. "You want to come, steal some stuff?"

"Yeah, alright" Spike shrugged.

* * *

Breaking into the Magic Box wasn't difficult. Turns out in his long years of life, Spike had picked up the skill of lock picking. Once the vampire opened the door, Dawn immediately went to work, searching the store, ignoring several expensive looking items.

"Girl on a mission, eh?" said Spike, watching as Dawn started going through several of the drawers behind the register. "What's the caper? Jewels? Ancient artifacts? Or just plain hard cash liberated from the till?"

"A book. Giles' notebook." Examining the register, Dawn discovered a hidden drawer. Smiling in triumph, she opened it and found her prize.

With a curious Spike looking over her shoulder, Dawn opened the book and what she read shattered her world.

* * *

Gabe hadn't taken the revelation about Dawn well. Surprisingly it had little to do with the girl's status as the Key and more to do with Buffy and the other's decision to keep the truth from Dawn.

Buffy wasn't sure how long she spent trying to defend her decision. Part of her was surprised she even felt the need to do so but chocked it up to lingering feelings of guilt over the loss of Robbie in the battle against the Mayor.

The argument ended abruptly when Tara spotted Dawn standing in the doorway. A large knife in one hand, with blood running down the other from a large cut across her forearm.

"Is this blood?" Dawn said in a daze. Buffy and Joyce immediately rushed over to check on her, but Dawn paid them no heed, her mind still spiraling. "This is blood, isn't it? It can't be me. I'm not a key. I'm not a thing."

"Oh, sweetie, no" Joyce said comfortingly. "What's this all about?"

"What am I? Am I real? Am I anything?" Buffy watched grimly as Dawn broke down in tears, wondering if Gabe was right and if things would've been easier for her, if she'd just been honest with Dawn sooner.


	17. 2-9

I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider

* * *

The next day Buffy marched into the magic shop, determined to find something that would help Dawn.

"We need answers, Giles" she told the Watcher. "We need to find out everything we can about the Key. What's it for, who created it."

"And why Glory has a big girl-god jones for it" Xander chimed in.

Buffy shook her head, "This isn't about her. It's about Dawn. She deserves to know where she came from. She needs to know. Or it's just going to eat away at her."

"How did she even find these?" Giles wondered, as he collected his notes and papers, left on the counter after Dawn's late-night break in. "How did she get in here?"

"Who's been using the urn of Ishtar as an ashtray?!" Anya suddenly exclaimed. Disgusted, she removed a cigarette butt from the urn, showing it to the others.

Buffy's eyes narrowed into a cold glare as she realized the identity of Dawn's partner in crime.

* * *

Spike was just in his crypt, sitting atop one of the coffins, painting his fingernails, and minding his own business. When suddenly Buffy burst inside madder than the vampire had ever seen her.

"Morning, sunshine. If you've come around for eggs or sausage, I'm fresh out."

Not in the mood for the vampire's attitude, Buffy yanked the lid out from under Spike, causing him to stumble backward into the coffin.

"Hey, careful!" Spike whined, showing off his freshly painted nails. "These are still wet."

As the vampire sat up, Buffy slid the lid back onto the coffin, pressing it against Spike's chest, pinning him up against the opposite end of the coffin.

"How could you let her find out like that?" Buffy demanded angrily. "From books and papers? You hate me that much?"

"I was just along for the ride" said Spike, having caught on to what the problem was. "Not like I knew she was a mystical glowing key thing. Nobody keeps me in the bloody loop, do they?"

Buffy slammed her fist against the lid, "You could have stopped her!"

Spike rolled his eyes. "Oh, yeah, here it comes. Something goes wrong in your life, blame Spike. News flash, blondie." Heaving the lid up of him, Spike tossed it aside and jumped out of the coffin. "Maybe if you had been more honest with her in the first place, you wouldn't be trying to make yourself feel better with a round of Kick the Spike."

Having heard enough, Buffy turned and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

First Gabe and now Spike, Buffy hated to admit but they were probably right. It was her decision that did this to Dawn and now it was up to her to find some way to help.

* * *

Buffy wasn't the only one trying to figure out a way to help Dawn. After school, Dawn had immediately retreated to her room with Gabe following after her.

"You don't have to be here, you know?" said Dawn. "I'm not really your friend. I'm not anything."

"That's not true" said Gabe. "I'm really your friend. And you're certainly real enough to curse out a teacher."

Unconvinced, Dawn curled up into a ball on her bed, trying to hold back her tears, as Gabe tried unsuccessfully to comfort her.

Meanwhile downstairs Buffy and Joyce were agonizing over what they were supposed to do.

"We can't just leave her up there" said Joyce.

"She needs time" said Buffy. "We can't force her to be all right with this."

"That's your answer? Just...leave her alone and hope that everything works itself out?" Joyce couldn't believe it. It was that kind of attitude that put them in this situation. "She's already been suspended from school. We need to talk to her."

"And what good would that do? She's not real. We're not her family, we don't even know what she is."

"How can you talk about Dawn like that. As if she's a thing?"

"I'm not! I'm just saying that's how she feels. And if I were her, I wouldn't want my mother and my sister coming at me from all sides. We're just lucky she's at least not pushing Gabe away."

"We can't leave this all on Gabe, Buffy. Dawn needs to know that she's still a part of this family and that we love her."

"It's not that simple! We can't fix this with a hug and a kiss and a bowl of soup! Dawn needs to know where she came from, she needs real answers."

"What she needs is her sister, Buffy, not the Slayer."

"The Slayer is the only thing standing between Dawn and this god from the bitch dimension…"

"But you're not" said Robbie, walking into the house. He'd heard what Buffy said and he wasn't impressed with her attitude. "You can't even hurt Glory. I can. All you're doing is hiding behind being the Slayer because you don't know what to say to Dawn."

Buffy glared at Robbie, not appreciating all the criticism she's been taking lately. "You spend how much time just driving around looking for the hell bitch only to come up with nothing? How about you do your job first before you come in here and start criticizing…"

"Help!" Gabe's voice suddenly rang out, bringing an end to Buffy's tirade just as a shrill beeping noise started to fill the house.

Worried that Glory had found them, Robbie and Buffy raced up to Dawn's room with Joyce following closely behind them. Kicking down Dawn's door, they found Gabe on the floor with his chair knocked over and fire burning in Dawn's wastebasket.

"What happened?" Robbie asked, as he helped his brother back into his wheelchair.

"I talked Dawn out her room" said Gabe, glaring at Buffy. "We heard what you said about her." Buffy looked away, cursing herself for tearing Dawn down even further. "She just went nuts and started burning her diaries. I tried to stop her, but you saw how that worked out. She just took off through the window."

Buffy looked towards the open window and cursed herself for tearing Dawn down even further.

* * *

Desperate for answers, Dawn went to the one place she might be able to help her. Taking care not to be spotted she made her way to the mental ward at Sunnydale Memorial. As soon as they saw her, all of the patients began to mutter nervously as Dawn walked into the room.

"You know what I am, don't you?" Dawn said to the patients. "You all know! Tell me! What am I?"

"The Key." Dawn whipped her head around, focusing on one of the patients, a dark-haired man with a symbol tattooed on her face. "I found it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

Dawn rushed over to the patient's bedside. "You know what the Key is? Where did I come from? Who made me, w-what am I?"

"Thank you, thank you..." the man repeated.

"Please!"

Suddenly the patient jerked his head up, "Destroyer!" Dawn jumped back in shock. "Cracked...bones...the sun bleeding into the sky! The Key is the link. The link must be severed. Such is the will of God. Such is the will of God. Such is the will of God."

The patient repeated the phrase over and over, plaguing on Dawn's fears. Needing to get away, Dawn raced to the door only to run into Ben much their mutual surprise.

Taking Dawn to the staff locker room, Ben made them some hot chocolate and sat themselves down to talk.

"Why're you here, Dawn?" Ben asked. "Was your mom brought back in?"

"No" Dawn said bitterly. "My mom's just fine."

Ben gave Dawn a puzzled look. "Is there anybody I can call? Your sister?"

"I don't have a sister."

"Oh, you two have a fight? It's ok, I know how that goes. I got a sister too. They can be a real pain sometimes. I tell you, there've been a lot of nights I wish she didn't exist either."

"It's not Buffy. It's me." Dawn sighed. "I'm the one that doesn't exist"

"Look, I know it can feel that way sometimes, but when you're older"

"No, you don't understand. It's not real. None of it. I'm just a thing the monks made so Glory couldn't find me. I'm not real."

Ben jumped to feet staring at Dawn in both shock and fear. "You're the Key?"

"How do you know about the Key?" Dawn asked, giving the nurse a curious look.

"Go! Before she finds you!" Ben ordered frantically. "Don't ask me how she knows, because she always…Oh god. Oh god no, she's coming. I can feel it, you've got to get out. No...Oh no, she's here!" Ben lurched forward and grabbed Dawn by the arms, frightening the girl. "She's here!"

Dawn gasped and stared in shock as Ben suddenly transformed into Glory.

"Hey, who're you?" Glory demanded, while Dawn continued to stare. "Hey! I'm waiting."

"I-I'm Dawn. I'm the Slayer's sister so you better…"

Glory yawned dramatically, already bored with the girl. Telling Dawn to stay put, the Hell goddess went over to Ben's locker exchanging his hospital scrubs for her signature dress.

"Now that's what I'm talking about. Silk just makes your skin sing."

"You're-you're Ben." Dawn said in disbelief.

"It's a teensy bit more complicated than that" said Glory. "Family always is, isn't it?" Dawn jumped as in the blink of an eye, Glory had crossed the room to stand right in front of her. "Now. What I'm trying to noodle, is what in the world was the Slayer's little sis doing here with gentle Ben?"

"Y-you don't remember?"

"Remember what? You were talking to him, not me." Dawn flinched as Glory casually brushed hair of her shoulder, before she gasped dramatically and grabbed Dawn's chin, forcing her to look her in the eye. "Oh, he wasn't being naughty, was he?"

Just then a security guard entered the room, telling Glory that the locker room was for hospital staff only. Annoyed by the interruption, faster than the eye could see, Glory grabbed the guard by the head and with a twist, snapped his neck like a twig.

"Rude! I was talking!" Glory sighed as she pulled Dawn to her feet. "What do you say we find a nice place where you and I can have a long uninterrupted chat."

Scared out of her mind, Dawn made no effort to resist as Glory dragged her into one of the hospital labs.

"Ok. Small talk over" said Glory, as she shoved Dawn up against a lab bench. "I'm in a bit of a crunch here, so let's cut right to the ooey gooey center. Your sister, the Slayer, has my key. It's mine, I want it. Do you know where she squirreled it away? There's ice cream and puppy dogs in it for you if you start singing."

"I'm not sure" Dawn said nervously, know fully aware of who she was dealing with. "What does it look like?"

Glory smiled fondly, hands over heart, taking a few steps back as she started to get nostalgic. "Well the last time I caught a peep it was a bright green swirly shimmer. Really brought out the blue in my eyes. But then those sneaky little monks pulled an abracadabra, so now it could look like anything. You see the predicament I'm in."

"Maybe..."

"Yes?"

"Well, maybe if you...told me more about it, I'd know if I've seen it."

Glory sighed, leaning forward she placed her hands on the table on either side of Dawn. Dawn gasped nervously, as the weight of Glory's gaze fell upon her.

leans forward, puts her hands on the table on either side of Dawn. Dawn gasps nervously. Glory gazes at her for a moment.

"Ok" Glory smiled after what felt like an eternity.

Dawn sighed in relief, "So this key thing, it's been around for a long time?"

"Well, not as long as me, but yeah. Just this side of forever."

"Is it evil?" Dawn asked quietly.

"Totally!" Glory laughed, failing to notice Dawn's look of dismay. "Well, no, not really. Guess it depends on your point of view."

"What's it for? I mean ... if it's a key, there's got to be a lock, right?"

"Yes. We have a winner."

"S-so what does it open?"

"I smell a fox in my hen house" Glory sighed in annoyance, having caught on to what Dawn's doing. "Is that why you've been playing sugar and spice with old Uncle Ben? Trying to get a peek at Glory's unmentionables?" Dawn tried to deny it, but Glory was through with the games. "You know what I'm starting to think? I'm thinking that maybe you don't have any idea where my key is. But hey, this doesn't have to be a complete waste of my precious time. I've been meaning to send the Slayer a message. And I could use a little pick-me-up. Two birds, one stone, and Boom. You have yummy dead birds."

As Glory prepared to feast on Dawn's mind, the door to the lab was suddenly thrown open as Buffy and the others arrived.

"Get away from my sister" Buffy growled.

"Hey, we were just talking about you" said Glory.

With Glory's attention now off her, Dawn ran to Buffy's side.

"Conversation's over hell-bitch. But I know someone who's been looking for you" Buffy quipped, as Robbie stepped forward, his eyes glowing with hellfire, as he summoned his hellfire chain.

"Figures you'd be here" said Glory. "What's with you and the last-minute rescues?"

Not sharing Glory's need to banter, Robbie lashed out with his chain. Bringing her arm up to block, Glory allowed the chain to wrap itself around her limb, paying no mind as the flames burned her skin. Using her divine strength, Glory yanked on the chain pulling Robbie towards her. Just as in their last battle, Robbie took the opportunity to summon forth the power of the Spirit of Vengeance, and with a mighty roar transformed into the Ghost Rider.

Holding his ground against Glory's strength, Ghost Rider countered with a hook to the Hell goddess' jaw, sending her crashing into a display case. As Ghost Rider moved in, Glory lashed out with a kick to the chest sending him flying across the room, slamming into an X-ray machine.

Picking himself up, Ghost Rider charged at Glory. As the two powerhouses grappled, Buffy and Spike threw themselves into the fight, each pinning down one of Glory's arms, leaving her open for Ghost Rider to start punching her in the face.

"I thought you said this skank was tough" said Spike.

Kicking Ghost Rider back, Glory broke free of Buffy and Spike's grip, grabbing them by their shirt collars she lifted them both of the ground with ease.

"Your boyfriend should watch his mouth" said Glory, as she tossed the vampire into a wall, hard enough to leave cracks in the surface before slumping to the ground unconscious.

"He is NOT my boyfriend" Buffy glared at the Hell goddess.

Glory shrugged and slammed Buffy into the floor before suddenly turning fast enough to catch the end of Ghost Rider's hellfire chain before it could pierce her head. Jerking on the chain, Ghost Rider pulled Glory towards him. Grabbing her around the throat he slammed the goddess into the floor.

Kicking him in the stomach with both feet, Glory knocked the Ghost Rider off of her and into the ceiling. Timing it just right, as he dropped back down, Glory landed a punch that sent the Ghost Rider crashing into a lab bench.

As she moved in, Buffy came at Glory with a flying kick only for the goddess to catch her leg.

"Hey, these are really nice shoes" said Glory, checking out the Slayer's footwear.

As Glory pushed her away, Buffy moved into a back-flip, kicking Glory in the face on the way down.

"Giles, now!" Buffy dived out of the way as Giles fired his crossbow, the arrow bouncing harmlessly off Glory's stomach.

Glory gave them an annoyed look "Oh, please. Like that's-" sneaking up behind her, Xander hit Glory over the head with a tire iron but to no avail. "Hey! Watch the hair."

Tearing the tire iron out of Xander's grasp, Glory tossed him aside, sending him flying into Giles causing them both to crash into an X-ray display screen. "Time to start the dying. Start with the whelp!"

Choosing Dawn as her target, Glory threw the tire iron like a javelin, just as Ghost Rider tackled her from the side sending them crashing into a display case.

"Dawn!" Throwing herself in front of Dawn, Buffy let the tire iron stab her the shoulder, as she fell to the ground.

"Buffy!" Dawn cried as she rushed to her sister's side.

"Guys we have a problem" said Willow, pointing to where Glory and the Ghost Rider were wrestling. The case they'd just crashed through was filled with chemicals and all it would take was one spark from the Rider's flames to set off an explosion.

Knowing they couldn't let an explosion go off in a hospital, Willow grabbed Tara saying she needed her help. Careful not to be drawn into their battle Tara and Willow each threw a handful of glittery powder over both Glory and Ghost Rider.

"Discede!" Willow incanted. With a clap of her hands, Glory and the Ghost Rider vanished in a cloud of dust, thankfully taking the volatile chemicals with them.

"Willow!" Tara cried as Willow fell to the ground.

Buffy pulled Dawn into hug, looking back at Willow and Tara, she asked "What did you do?"

"Yeah, I thought things were supposed to go boom" said Xander.

"Teleportation spell" said Willow, panting as her nose started to bleed. "Still working out the kinks."

"That was an incredibly dangerous spell for an adept at your level" Giles admonished.

"Yep. Won't be trying that one again soon" Willow assured him, dazed and over taxed by the spell.

With things calm for the moment, Buffy focused on Dawn. "Are you ok? Did she hurt you?"

"Why do you care?" said Dawn. "I heard what you said."

Buffy sighed, still feeling guilty Dawn heard her. "Dawn, forget what I said. I care because I love you. You're my sister."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are." Buffy lifted Dawn's arm, revealing that she'd been cut at some point during the chaos. "Look, it's blood. Summers blood." Pressing her hand against her shoulder wound, Buffy took her bloody hand and clasped it in Dawn's. "It's just like mine. It doesn't matter where you came from or how you got here. You are my sister."

Breaking into tears Dawn wrapped her arms around Buffy, holding her tightly. "I was so scared."

"Me too" Buffy murmured, also getting teary-eyed.

Dawn looks at her for a moment, then hugs her tightly. They both get teary-eyed. "Come on, let's go home."

Buffy and Dawn stood up off the floor as everyone else gathered around them.

"Wait. Ben" Dawn suddenly remembered. "He…" she paused, as a haze filled her mind. "I…I think he might have left before Glory came...I can't, I can't remember."

"Don't worry about it" said Buffy. "Next time we see him, we'll thank him. I have to get you home though. Mom's freaking out and we left poor Gabe to deal with it."

"Oh, man." Dawn's eyes widen in fear as she remembered she'd done. "They're going to kill me."

"Considering all the big love and trauma, mom might give you a break. Gabe though, yeah, you definitely owe him big time."

Dawn nodded, feeling guilty over what she did to her friend. As they prepared to leave the hospital Buffy turned to Willow and asked the question on all of their minds.

"Where'd you send them?" Buffy asked.

"Don't know" said Willow. "That's one of the kinks. You don't think Robbie's going to be mad…do you?"

* * *

Standing alone in a desert outside of Sunnydale the Ghost Rider was furious. Willow's spell had not only transported him to the middle of nowhere, Glory hadn't even been sent with him, meaning the Hell goddess was still running around somewhere.

Summoning the Hell Charger to his side the Ghost Rider returned to human form. Robbie drove back towards town swearing to himself that he'd be having a few words with Willow.


End file.
